Harry Potter and the Walking Dead
by Martin70
Summary: My answer to MathiasNightlord01's story challenge. Harry defeated Moldyshorts thirteen years ago then left to travel the world. He arrives home just in time to see the beginning of the Walking Dead Apocalypse... See inside for details... Rated T for violence and gore...
1. Prologue

**Harry Potter and the Walking Dead**

 **By Martin70**

 **Summary:** Harry survives the war against Voldemort and lives the next thirteen years traveling after Ginny rejects him in favor of Neville Longbottom. In his travels, Harry becomes more powerful and wiser. Peace ends for the world when an evil rogue wizard, hoping to make a name for himself, sets a series of events in motion that will destroy the world and begins the Zombie Apocalypse. Now Harry is forced out of his self-imposed retirement in order to save what's left of humanity, or watch everything and everyone around him fall and die...

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or The Walking Dead. This story is purely for my enjoyment and posted here so others may enjoy it as well. I have received no money, and will not accept any from anyone for this story. (/sigh) Now that this is out of the way, I won't repost it every chapter as I see others doing. Once is enough as far as I'm concerned, and this disclaimer covers the entirety of this story from start to finish... Whenever that may be... Thanks, Martin70.

 **AN1:** This story is based on MathiasNightlord01's story challenge on fanfiction dot net (story id: 11141689/1/).

Challenge 1: Must start 10-15 years after Deathly Hallows. Check.

Challenge 2: Harry has been learning magic in obscure places around the world as he travels over the 10-15 year period. Check.

Challenge 3: No Ginny pairing. Check.

Challenge 4: Fred survives Battle of Hogwarts because Percy saves him, taking the killing curse himself. Check.

Challenge 5: Harry has had a few relationships over the years, but no marriages. Check. (Got a possible past pairing or two in mind... hehehe.)

Challenge 6: Magicals are immune to the plague. Check.

Challenge 7: The Statute of Secrecy is repealed by the ICW after the muggle world falls apart. The Wizarding World is exposed as magicals worldwide begin to combat the threat and save as many muggles (not to mention themselves) as possible and search for a cure... Check.

Challenge 8: Harry must go to America to save muggles there and run into Rick's group. Check.

Rules: (taken directly from challenge page...)

1.) Harry MUST be able to use his magic to the fullest and not be nerfed to be suddenly stupid or weak like the majority of HP/WD crossovers do. This rule is non-negotiable.

2.) Harry must be more powerful, knowledgeable, and less dependent on others than he was in canon due to the years he has spent traveling and learning during his time after the Battle of Hogwarts.

3.) No Harry Slash or Bi Pairings Allowed. Check. (Not my cup of tea anyway.)

4.) No Fem!Harry Allowed. Check. (Most are too convoluted read anyway. If anyone knows a good one post it to me in a review or PM me.)

5.) Harry didn't abandon the Deathly Hallows but secretly kept them with him in the 10-15 years after the Battle of Hogwarts. Check. (I never bought the whole idea of Harry leaving any of the Hallows for others to find later (the Resurrection Stone) or destroying one (the Elder Wand).)

6.) No Magical or Multiple Animagus forms if the author chooses to make Harry one. Check. (Got one picked out -and no it's not magical or a wolf...)

7.) Since the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy has been lifted, Harry has no need to hide his magic from Muggles. Check and double check.

8.) All authors taking this challenge must put a disclaimer in their stories saying where the ideas listed in this challenge page come from. This is to avoid problems in case I wish to use some of these ideas myself if I ever find the time to write a story for this challenge myself. Check.

 **AN2:** This story will be a strictly seat-of-the-pants in nature, so I don't know what is going to happen anymore than you the readers do until I've written it. I have a rough idea of how I want this story to go and I will explain at least a little bit about how the ZA begins in the first few chapters. After that, it's all my muse and maybe a little feedback from friends and reviewers. That said, this story will also have a few wild twists I will throw in for variety and possibly have some cameos from characters in few of my other stories. The cameos may be short, or long, depending on the will of my muse and they WILL push the story forward in some fashion whether it be to save a main character in the story or having Harry run into another group led by one of my other characters... Anyway, I know that might seem confusing to some of you, cause I'm getting a headache just writing this note, lol.

 **AN3:** A little side note, wizards apparate from place to place. They don't disapparate as diapparating would in literal terms mean they stayed put. Dis = not... so disapparate means not to apparate Also Apparition is not the proper word for this spell, apparition means ghost or phantom, therefore Apparation is going to be used as that is the logical spelling for the spell.

PS, If this upsets you, don't read my story, you'll just get angry... /sigh

Thanks, Martin70

Now then, on with the story!

 **Prologue**

 **Thirteen Years After The Battle of Hogwarts**

Standing in a dark and dank cavern lit by candles and a single torch, a dark and evil man began to chant over an ancient looking artifact. The artifact being a large black sphere a foot in diameter resting in the middle of a ritual circle. The circle had dozens of ancient runes tied into a single matrix. This matrix had a single purpose, to raise the dead and bend them to his will, but the evil man chanting over the artifact was in way over his head... though _he_ didn't know that, not yet...

The artifact began to glow an eerie green, the color of an Avada Kedavra spell in fact. When this happened, the man's concentration slipped slightly, but that was more than enough for the artifact to awaken fully...

Long ago, in a time long forgotten, even to the first human spell casters of this world, the artifact was used to raise an army of undead that destroyed that civilization utterly, leaving no traces of its existence in the fossil record. The sphere had a long and bloody history, from its ancient forming to today, it had been sought out by evil. Atlantis fell because of it, and even Voldemort had sought it, and had used it once using a tiny matrix to power his Inferi...

Now, a new user was about to unleash its full power once again, only this time, he'd increased the size of the matrix beyond the scope called for through the indoctrination of the sphere. The wizard was weak of will, truth be told, and he'd sought to regain some of his free will, hoping to overpower the ritual and destroy the sphere itself in the process. It might have worked, but for his weak will and poor concentration. Instead of destroying the sphere, the ritual circle fed it untold power via the ley lines on which it now sat. What was intended, at best, to create an army of thousands, if drawn up correctly, the circle fed enough power to the sphere to infect the globe... the whole of the Earth...

Is it any wonder that the dead worldwide began to rise?

Back in the cavern, the wizard was burned to ash... his name never known or feared by anyone... Though if anyone had known it and what he'd just done, it's a certainty that it would have become a curse uttered by every mouth on the planet...

Across the planet, in small numbers at first, the dead began to rise and they began to feed. Many became feverish as the power of the sphere passed over them so subtly as to go unnoticed by anyone. Those too began to die after a few hours to a few days. Those, now dead, rose as well and began to feed and infect more until the world was engulfed and the ZA kicked itself off into full swing.

The Sphere itself pulsed on, giving off a deep greenish glow, forgotten once more by all who now lived... save one...

HPTWD

 **Three Weeks Later**

Harry Potter watched in horror as old friends, strangers, and others fought and died before his very eyes. A herd of hundreds of walkers was attacking Diagon Alley in London.

Of course, they fought as well, but the numbers of Inferi were beginning to rise as muggles in London proper died and increased their ranks. Normally, wizards and witches didn't use offensive magic and many fell due to the lack of memory recall, either getting the wand movements wrong or saying the words to a spell incorrectly. It was a steep learning curve, those who cast their spells properly lived and protected those they could or those who didn't and fell to the feeding frenzy breaking out in the alley. The number of able bodied fighters was dwindling fast...

"We have to fall back to Gringots! There are too many of them!" Ron called out to the crowd and his fellow Aurors.

Shacklebolt gave a nod as he cast an overpowered diffindo into the crowd of walkers. "Fall back! Fall back to Gringots!" he yelled with a Sonorus cast on his throat. This of course riled the undead herd before them, egging them on.

As if a dam had broken, the crowd of defenders began to run from the fight. Some tripped and were jumped by the undead horde now pouring into the alley from the Leaky Caldron. How the undead had found their way into the tavern was unknown, but now no one could safely close off the gateway from there.

It wasn't hard to get away from the herd, the walkers weren't super fast of anything, it was just so unnerving to watch the herd just keep on coming despite all the spells that were flying at them. People panicked and ran into side shops only to be trapped as the herd branched out into the alley and began to feed. Others would apparate away, only to find their destinations swarming with more walkers. There was little hope left. Some who apparated out found themselves attacked before they could react. A few simply gave up and let the herd consume them rather than live on after watching ones they loved being eaten. It was the saddest day in English history. The sun was about to set on their mighty empire for the final time...

Harry and Ron held the doors with the goblins for as long as they could as the alley fell. They saved dozens, but hundreds more fell before they were forced to seal the doors. Most of the Aurors fell at that door, defending it nearly to the last man. Only Ron and Shacklebolt remained of their squad.

"We will seal the other doors as well wizards..." said a surly looking Goblin.

Harry nodded wearily, "Alright then. Will you need any assistance?"

The goblin scowled at Harry, "No, not from thieving scum like you, Potter..." as he walked off in disgust, the goblin muttering about the sword of Griffindor and broken promises.

Harry sighed and pulled Ron into a brotherly hug. The Goblins would never forgive him for that, even if it had been Neville who'd summoned the sword to kill Nagini.

"I'm glad you're alive mate." Harry said to Ron.

"Same here Harry. Did you see where Fred and George went during the attack?" asked a worried Ron.

Harry nodded wearily, "Yeah, they pulled Ginny and Molly into the store early on and sealed their doors before those thing could get close. I'm sure they'll be fine. They're probably back at the Burrow or went to the Ministry for protection."

Ron sighed, "I hope you're right mate. I'll see if I can make a floo call. I'll try the burrow first, then the Ministry."

Ron headed off while Shacklebolt came up to Harry. "Hello Mr. Potter. I had hoped to see you again under different circumstances."

Harry gave a nod to the head of the DMLE, "Yes sir. Good to see you've made it through that mess out there. Did you need something or is this just a social call?"

"Yes Harry, I'm afraid I've been ordered to conscript all available wizards and witches who know one end of their wand from another to fight this new threat." Shacklebolt said looking strained.

"Whose idea was that, Malfoy's?" Lucius Malfoy had bought his way out of trouble again after the Battle of Hogwarts and eventually gained the power he'd always wanted, the position of Minister of Magic in Britain. Old prejudices died hard in the wizarding world and his winning of the last election proved this out to many muggleborns and half-bloods. One of the main reasons Harry had left the country was because he'd seen which way the wind was blowing.

"No one's seen Malfoy in a week. A search of Malfoy Manor turned up nothing. Right now he's presumed to have fled the country. Augusta Longbottom has taken up the mantle of Minister for Magic and is coordinating with the ICW to find out what caused this calamity and to hopefully put a stop to it. Thank Merlin Magicals are immune to whatever this is, we might have a fighting chance to end this successfully." Shacklebolt informed Harry.

"Mrs. Longbottom, good, she's just what we need right now. Someone who knows what they're doing!" Harry exclaimed. "Okay then Shack, you've got me. What do you need me to do?"

Just then, Ron returned. "Heya mate, the family's fine. They're at the Ministry. I've been told to tell everyone that the Unspeakables are going to launch a counter offensive and take back the Alley in two hours. They would like for anyone who is able to assist them when the time comes."

Shacklebolt gave a sigh of relief, "Very good Mr. Weasley. That is good news indeed. Harry I'd like you to gather everyone who can fight and meet us at the main door to the bank. Ask the Goblins to help as well. We can negotiate a price for their services later."

Harry nodded and pulled Ron along to help.

HPTWD

Two and a half hours later, the Alley was back under wizarding order. The undead were gathered and banished and the then the cleanup began.

Outside Diagon Alley, the city of London fell...

HPTWD

 **Hogwarts, School of Witch Craft and Wizardry**

 **The Following Week**

Hogwarts was in the maelstrom of chaos as witches and wizards from around the world flocked to the school as a bastion from the evil that had befallen the world. The ICW convened a meeting at the school and, with those representatives present, called a vote to repeal the Statute of Secrecy. This was unanimously passed and notices sent out to all surviving muggle governments as well as the magical communities scattered across the earth. Some governments rejected the ICW's announcement as a ploy to take over the world for themselves. Others desperately begged for assistance as they were about to be overrun. Those who rejected the ICW's help fell, those that sought help were helped to evacuate to safer places inside their prospective countries and tried to govern the chaos that was ensuing. Even some of these safe havens were lost due to the muggles being infected. Whole governments that had been saved were thus lost, before anyone could stop it. Eventually, anyone that came to the havens was quarantined for a set number of days before they were allowed to interact with other survivors.

Hogwarts itself almost fell when the large group of muggles they'd been able to move there came under attack during the night by a single walker that had died there that evening without anyone else noticing their absence. That walker fell up a lone muggle as he slept and began to feed, that muggle was turned and that was the catalyst that nearly wiped out the remaining muggles in the camp on the Quidditich field. A few were saved by Hagrid using a troll's club he'd saved since Harry's first year at school. His moleskin coat keeping the walkers from getting a bite out of him as he bashed in skull after skull. When it was all over and the remaining survivors had been moved inside the castle, Hagrid had fallen to his knees and screamed out his anguish at having to kill and because he'd been unable to save several children who he'd later had to kill after they had turned as well. After that, he walked into the Forbidden Forest and disappeared, no one now knew whether he was still alive or had died in the woods he'd tended for so many years...

HPTWD

Several weeks passed by as the muggle world fell into utter disarray. In the Wizarding World, wizards and witches, worldwide, were formed into teams of four and sent out in search of the living. Harry was asked to form such a team and he did so. Ron, Neville, and Hermione, who'd been abroad like Harry until the plague hit, formed his small unit.

They were sent over to the United States to help recover those they could. The American Ministry was very shorthanded because their government had been closely linked to the muggle government and a good many magicals had fallen during the initial phase of the recovery operation that was now ongoing, as well as the fact that America was one big land mass! The American wizards were stretched extremely thin over so much territory.

HPWTD

 **AN:** So there's the first chapter, aka -Prologue. I know it's a bit short, but that's as it should be.

"The hall is rented, the orchestra is engaged, It's now time to see if you can dance..." -Q

The next chapter is coming soon...


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One:** **Welcome To America**

Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom arrived in Washington, DC via an international portkey. Each was dressed in dragon skin armor with cooling and warming runes as well as a featherweight rune etched into the leather. The armor was a uniform black and formfitting. It was perfect for Walker protection as the only exposed skin was from the neck up and the hands. Dragon-hide gloves took care of the latter, while the armor itself had a hidden pocket in the neckline that held a hood/mask that could come up and over the face and neck keeping those areas safe from bites.

In addition to their armor, each had a moleskin bag with a very large expansion charm. Inside each bag was enough gear for four to operate in the field for a year. That gave them redundancy in case a bag was lost. The gear included everything one would need to 'rough it' for that time, this included pots, pans, utensils and other sundry camping gear, as well as four muggle tents and one magical tent (made for four). Then came the food, toiletries and other sundry you would need for survival in the open.

Each magical tent contained a four bedroom apartment with everything one might expect to find in a wizarding home: the bedrooms, a large sitting room, a small library, a large community bathroom with showers and a large bath tub, and a well appointed kitchen. These tents would only be set up in areas that were deemed to be fully secure from both Walkers and any hostile people the group might encounter. For security, only a magical could set them up and only a magical could give permission for a muggle to enter them. In their collapsed form, the tents looked like a simple blanket roll, hiding their very nature from muggles. The tents had been created before the statute of secrecy was repealed, so these protections came standard for those who could afford them.

Each bag had four Nimbus 2010's in them as well. Harry had an additional two in his bag; his old Firebolt and a new one. The new Firebolt was half again as fast as his old one and required his armor to be worn to fly on it at full speed.

Finally, each had two spare wands in arm or leg holsters that had been made for them specially by Ollivander in gratitude for saving him from the herd of walkers that had attacked the alley. Each wand was as good as their originals and each holster was charmed to be invisible and undetectable by muggles.

Harry and his team found themselves surrounded by twenty American wizards and witches at wand point. "State your names and reason for being here!" called out one.

Harry took a step toward the man who'd called out, his hands spread to show he wasn't holding a wand, "I'm Harry Potter, these are Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom." he informed point to each of his team in turn. "We've been ordered to assist you Yanks."

"We asked for at least twenty magicals and they sent you four instead. Typical British arrogance!" muttered one wizard as he joined the group surrounding Harry's team.

"Can in Foley, we're lucky to have any help at all and I guess you missed the introduction, they sent their best to aid us, the Ministry Six it looks like minus two of their number. Where are Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley?" asked the first speaker.

Harry gave a small sigh, "Ginny is staying home to protect her family and Luna hasn't been seen in several years." In fact she'd disappeared shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts and all letters via owl were unsendable. No owl would take them at least. She could be dead as far as Harry knew, but a small feeling in the back of his mind said she was still out there somewhere, even now in the midst of this catastrophe.

"Where are my manners, my name is James Mason and our late comer here Rob Foley. The rest can introduce themselves later, for now please follow me." Mason said and gestured for them to follow him. The remaining unnamed guards resumed their posts at the portkey point, a large room able to fit fifty with room to spare.

Harry and the others followed Mason out of the room and found themselves walking in what was obviously the Capitol Building. Mason explained as they walked towards a large door leading to one of the wings to the building. "We took over the Capitol Building after the muggle government retreated to one of their underground bunkers in Virginia. We lost contact with them a week ago and they're believed to either be lost or otherwise indisposed. We'll be sending a team to check on them once we figure out how to reach them safely. You need very precise coordinates to do a blind apparation underground. You could easily find yourself inside a wall or the surrounding rock of the bunker itself. That's a nasty way to die. Usually you have to know your destination by having actually been there at least once for such an apparation."

Harry nodded, "I had a near miss once when I was still in primary school. I did accidental magic to escape my cousin and his bully friends and apparated onto the school's roof, actually appeared about a foot above it and fell. I was so shocked at the time that I thought nothing of it until much later when I first learned to apparate properly."

Mason gave a start, "You apparated before you were sixteen? Amazing, and you did it before you were even trained in any magic at all, that's astounding!"

"That's Harry for you, always doing the impossible. I just call it the Harry Effect now when he does something like that." Hermione said, jumping into the conversation.

Mason and Foley laughed at that. "Well, this way if you please, the Minister for Magical America will want a word with you."

Mason lead the group into a plush office. The doorway had signs of having recently been warded against muggles noticing it, but the ward stones were now sitting on a table to the side of the door and powered down. Apparently, this was the minister's actual office throughout his career.

"Ah Mason, Foley, good of you to come, who is this you have with you?" asked a lean and tall looking man wearing a fine business suit and tie, no wizarding robes were evident on any of the Americans.

"Minister Reynolds, I present to you, Harry Potter and company..." Mason replied with a smile.

"My goodness, is it true? It's a great pleasure to have you here Mr. Potter." Reynolds stated as he took in Harry's appearance and that of his companions. "And I see you've brought along some of your old allies against that damned disgrace of a wizard, Tom Riddle. Excellent! We could definitely use your help. Much of the country is in shambles or outright lost to us at the moment. We'll need skilled magicals like yourselves to regain a foothold in the country."

Harry and the others shook the Minister's hand and took seats in front of his desk. "How may we be of help Minister?" asked Harry, speaking for the group.

"I've had a seer scrying for us over the last few weeks looking for a key to ending this plague and helping us to save as many as we can." said Reynolds. "Now I know from your reputation that you have little faith in the art of divination, but this seer is a true one. She's been with my administration for several years now and she hasn't made a bad call yet."

Harry almost scowled, but it wouldn't do to be seen in public doing so, so he simply held his tongue.

Hermione on the other hand had to ask, "Who is this seer of yours? They're considered to be quite rare and like Harry, I put little stock in them."

"Luna Lovegood," said Reynolds, startling his subordinates, Mason and Foley.

"Lovegood is here?" asked Mason at the same time as Harry stood up and demanded to see her.

Reynolds waved Harry, and surprisingly Neville back to their seats, "Yes, yes, please calm yourselves. Luna is quite well and as I said, she's been with me for years now, of her own free will I might add. She'll be along in a few minutes, she'll be eager to see you all again I'm sure.

"Now then, as to what I need you to do specifically, I need you to find a group of people in Georgia. Somehow, they will hold the key to solving this mess once and for all. They don't have it yet, but they will find it sooner with you alongside them than if they are left on their own. According to Luna, you'll shave years off of this calamity if you can help them. Will you do this Mr. Potter?"

"If it will save that much time? Of course we'll do it. Right guys?" Harry stated, turning to look at his team.

"I'm in Harry, you can count on me." said Ron.

Hermione and Neville exchanged a glance and then both gave a nod of affirmation. "Of course Harry, we'll always have your back." Neville added.

"In for a penny, in for a pound." Hermione quoted with a grin. "It's what we're here for after all."

"Good, good. I knew when you entered my office I could count on all of you to get this done. Ah, Luna, just the person we were waiting for." Reynolds said, the last as the door opened an Luna Lovegood stepped in.

The gang all leaped to their feet and made as if to converge in the Ravenclaw. "Stop!" Luna called out, freezing them in place. "While it's good to see you again, I'm not up to being smothered! Now then, one at a time if you please. Harry, you first."

Harry gave the others a worried glance, then stepped up to Luna tentatively and brought her into a hug that she barely returned. Disappointment filled him at this apparent snub of his affection towards his old friend. Despite it, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and said, "Luna, it;s so good to see you again. You have no idea."

Luna looked into Harry's eyes and he felt a gentle probe touch his mind's shields. Harry had long ago found a proper book on the mind arts of Occulemancy and Legimancy and studied its secrets. No one could enter his mind now without his knowledge or permission. To do so would mean a rather harsh penalty for the offender. Luna however, he could accept into his mind, he had nothing to hide from her after all, so he opened his mind to her.

She dove in and sought out memories of the night of the battle. Apparently, she found what she was looking for and her features softened. "I thought you might still be a Horcrux Harry. I'm sorry, but I had to know. My visions of late have been hauntingly similar to the ones I had at Hogwarts. I thought maybe Voldemort had tricked us all somehow and possessed you at the end of the battle. The dark feelings I'd had during school didn't abate after Riddle's death. In fact they increased, that's why I fled the country. I was afraid he was going to come back and I couldn't handle it at the time. I'm sorry."

Luna turned to Ron and smiled, "Come here Ron. I won't bite. Not again anyway."

Ron gave a start, then gave her a hug which she returned with some enthusiasm. "We were four and five and I tried to kiss you. I'm surprised you remember that."

Luna laughed, "I think I'd remember my first kiss. You were very shy back then. Ginny had to tease you into doing it!"

"Say, you've changed Luna, you're not your 'Loony' self we'd all come to expect from you. What changed?" Ron asked as he studied her.

"Well Ron, it's called growing up and learning how to cope. I was pretty messed up by Mum's death, and the visions started for me shortly after beginning at Hogwarts. I believe they had something to do with hitting puberty. Anyway, instead of getting the proper help I needed in my school years, I retreated into my mind and made up stuff about nargles and wrackspurts to keep others at a distance. It didn't help that over half the Ravenclaw House teased me and bullied me the whole time I was there either." Luna informed calmly.

"Those lousy gits..." Ron started.

"You teased me too Ron, so don't start. I do forgive you though because we became friends again in my fourth year." Luna said, cutting him off.

"We're sorry you went through all that Luna, I should have seen it. I was teased in primary school for years myself because I was such a bookworm." Hermione said as she stepped forward and offered Luna a hug.

Luna happily returned the hug and said, "It's alright now Hermione. Once I came to America, I was properly diagnosed and treated for my depression and taught how to cope with my gift. I'm still spacey sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as at school."

Harry frowned, "Luna, I knew about you bullying problem and did nothing to stop it because you asked me not to. I should have told a teacher, or even Dumbledore. He would have put a stop to that and maybe have been able to get you the help you needed sooner."

"It's over with now Harry. No use getting upset over what if's and should have's now. I'm better now and I have my old friends back. What more could I ask for?" Luna stated.

Neville came forward and said, "How about an old flame that's very happy to see you and happy you've gotten the help you needed. I've missed you so much..." he choked out the last bit bringing Luna into a bone crushing hug.

Luna did a quick scan if Neville's open mind and sighed as she fell firmly into his grasp. She'd not felt this kind of contentment in over ten years, ever since the two of them had parted so abruptly after the battle. She knew he loved her, and, though she hadn't really realized it back then, she knew now that she'd found her soulmate. "I love you too, Neville Longbottom."

Neville's burst with sudden joy. He'd found her again and now for the first time, she had said what he'd always hoped she would. "Will you come with us?"

Neville's question sobered Luna somewhat, "I can't Nev, I'm needed right here. Minister Reynolds needs my visions to guide us through this, and you need to go with Harry. You're going to save some people at a critical moment in time. If you don't go, our cause could be set back years or it could be lost forever. I've seen this."

Neville was saddened by this news. He turned to Harry, "It's just like with me killing Nagini isn't it mate. If I hadn't killed that damned snake, Voldy would have come back again."

"It looks that way Nev. I hate prophesies..." Harry replied.

Mason interrupted the reunion, "Sorry to intrude, but we _are_ standing in the Minister's office. Shall we continue this meeting so we can all make plans?"

"Of course, how silly of me. I got caught up in the moment. I'm sorry George." Luna said looking at the Minister.

"No harm done. In fact I think this has helped to set you at ease Luna, in ways I hardly expected. But now then, let's continue making our plans and hope that we plan well, for our very lives and future depend upon it..."

The planning session began in earnest. Harry and his team learned a bit of geography for the state of Georgia and the surrounding states next to it just in case and went on to map out possible locations where they could secure a safe area for survivors to go to.

The Americans argued back and forth for quite some time as to where these safe locations should be.

"We could use Coleman Federal Prison," Foley said finally. "It's brand new, fairly remote and has its own power plant and water treatment facility, as well as a large hospital building. It's exactly what we'd need in terms of security. It's been built with actual walls all the way around it like the old style prisons of the last two centuries, no fencing to worry about being overrun or breached. It's also where they were going to put the Guantanamo prisoners, but no transfers had started yet. They were a week away from opening, so it should be fully stocked with everything refugees would need, food, medicine, etc."

"It might have, but the National Guard did start a camp there in the first weeks." Minister Reynolds said, "I'm afraid it may be overrun at the moment. And it's pretty far from Atlanta which is where Luna said they need to be."

"That might true right now, but give me twenty men and Harry's team and we can clear any inferi out in less than a week. Hell, we might find some survivors right there too, trapped in the prison by their former compatriots." Foley persisted.

Harry spoke up, "It sounds like our best option that I've heard so far. We can clear the prison and maybe a few of the other locations you've mentioned today and then go to Atlanta."

"No Harry, you need to go to Cynthiana Kentucky first, no later than tomorrow or you'll miss a key chance to save several survivors, then you can move on to Atlanta for the others." said Luna.

"Can we do the prison right now before we go the this Cynthiana?" asked Ron.

Luna pondered it for a moment, "Yes, but you'll have to hurry if you go now."

"So let's gather the guards in the portkey room and go to the prison right now. We can scout it out easily enough before it gets dark and see how difficult it will be to clear, if we need to that is. Any inferi that may have been there might be gone now." Foley recommended.

Mason shot that idea down, "No Foley, we can't spare the guards at the moment, but I suppose if Harry feels up to it and his team has no objections, they can go with you and scout it out."

Harry looked at his friends, after receiving a nod from each he said, "We can do that sir."

"Very well," said the Minister, "you may proceed. I'll have Richards in plotting get you a portkey ready that will put you in a good position to start your mission. Good luck, to all of you..."

HPTWD

Coleman Federal Prison was built along side of a chain of rivers and small lakes west of Sparta Georgia. It was more or less in the middle of nowhere, so the rumor of the National Guard using it as a refugee center was just that, a rumor. There was only one small access road leading out to it so there was no real ease of access to the place save along the water chain or via air.

It was built to house the lowest of the low, the toughest of the toughest, a supermax facility through and through. It was perfect... on paper. In reality it was a logistical nightmare. Most of its supplies had to be delivered via the access road or via barge. This meant tight scheduling was required to keep such a facility running at peak efficiency. It's too bad the world had to end to ruin all those carefully laid plans and schedules... It was going to be glorious, or so thought the warden of the facility, Gordon Reins.

Reins had been at the prison when all hell broke loose out in the rest of the world. As one of the planners for the prison, Reins had argued for and obtained a series of housing units for himself and his staff that he'd planned to hire. When the plague hit, his wife Marie and their daughter Kathy were in Atlanta. Reins sent the prison's personal chopper out to get them and they'd moved into the prison itself when they'd returned. Taking up residence in one of the hospital wings. Within hours, Kathy became sick. In a day, she was gone, and she then soon rose again as one of the living dead. Kathy bit her mother before Reins could get to her and by then he knew what that meant as did she... Reins shot them both in the head as he'd been instructed via radio and TV before they both went off the air and then cried like a baby for the next two weeks. He'd rarely eaten anything in that time period and lost a lot of weight. He was a shell of his former self and madness had begun to set in.

Over the next several weeks before Harry's arrival, Reins had gone completely bonkers. He'd managed to lock up all of his existing staff and their families in the first days after he'd gained a little of his self control back. Then he'd simply left them to starve to death. He quickly learned after the first few deaths of these poor people that there was no need for a bite or a scratch for a person to then turn. This lead him to the next leap in logic... They were all infected, every last one of us one of them.

He was safe of course, nothing could infect him! He was the warden! He didn't _have time_ to get infected! Yes he was quite mad indeed. He systematically began killing the others at the prison, putting them out of their misery was how he saw it. Nothing could be done for them after all...

Into this madness came Harry and his team plus one American wizard. The portkey dropping them off on the roof of the hospital wing so they'd have an overview of the prison.

Reins saw them arrive and realized that the nonsense he'd heard about there being people out there in the world o could perform acts of magic, actual magic, not the on stage variety must be true. He promptly took aim at one of the wizards from his present vantage point, a guard tower next to the hospital wing, which had a height advantage of twenty feet _above_ the hospital roof, and squeezed off a round at the only female present. Witches were more dangerous right?

The shot knocked Hermione off her feet as it hit her in the left shoulder, Reins was currently drunk so had missed the head shot he'd aimed for. The only thing that had saved her was the armor conveyed some protection from bullets. Some, but not much, the bullet was stopped, but the force of said bullet translated partially through her armor and broke both clavicle bones on that side of her body. Instantly, she dropped and through up a shield with her good arm, wand already in hand.

The others did the same and then turned towards the threat from above.

Harry saw red as a lean, near skeletal figure took aim once more after calmly jacking another round into his sniper rifle. Taking aim, Harry yelled, "Stupify!" The red colored cursed caught the man in the face and dropped him like a rock.

"Hermione!" yelled Ron. He rushed to her side and checked her over with a quick medi-spell.

"I'm okay Ron, the armor caught most of it, nothing a dose of skelegrow won't fix." She told him in a thready voice, her face pale from the pain.

Neville reached into his bag for a pain potion and a bottle of skelegrow. They instantly arrived in his hand and he gave them to Hermione to drink.

"Thanks Nev." She said, downing the bottles with a grimace, "I really need to find a way to flavor those things so they don't make me feel sick..."

Foley apparated up into the tower and cast an incarcerous spell on their would be assassin, then came back with him. "His ID says he's the warden here."

Harry shook his head in disbelief, "How the hell does a man like that gain control of an elite prison like this place," he pointed out towards what looked like a very well maintained prison, "and where the bloody hell are the rest of the people that should be here?"

"We'll need to do a search of the prison, see if anyone else is left." Foley said looking at the man at his feet in extreme disapproval.

"Expecto Patronum! To anyone still alive here, do what you can to make some noise, help is on the way... If you can't make noise, stay put and stay quiet, again help is coming. Stay with anyone who is in trouble. Act as a distraction if you can to save them, now go." Harry said, passing along a message and some instruction to his patronus. The others followed suit with similar messages and instructions. Each sent their patronus to different areas of the prison to search. The area more quickly.

Harry turned to the warden, "Enervate, Legimens..." He delved into the man's broken mind seeking answers. He found them and was sickened by what he found there, especially the man's vision of self worth. He'd been a decent bloke once, but the loss of his family brought forth a dark side the the man. One that left little choice for Harry.

He pulled back from the man's mind and issued his findings, "For the murder of twelve men, women, and children, you leave me no choice but to sentence you to death." He drew the Elder Wand and sent a cutting curse at the prone man's neck, decapitating him. He then sent a piercing curse into the head, ending the man's existence forever in this world.

He pulled the Resurrection Stone and called the man back, "You understand why I did what I did?"

The shade nodded reluctantly. "I do, you gave me a mercy. I shall not forget it." Harry dismissed the man to his fate in the afterlife.

Hermione was trembling, "Harry, how could you be so brutal?"

"I am what this world made me Hermione, a weapon. I chose to use that for justice." Harry replied.

"Is this what you've been doing all these years? Have you been judge, jury and executioner to others? How many?" Hermione asked, shouting out the last question.

"Only him Hermione. I got Ministry approval both here and back home. Out here in the world, we're going to run into some pretty despicable people. Murderers, rapists, pedophiles, the worst kinds of people you can imagine, we'll probably see them all before this is over. We need to have some kind of law, so I asked for the authority to do what needs to get done. They said okay, so here I am now, carrying out that authority, because, like or not Hermione, someone has to do it..." Harry replied before turning back to the remains and banishing them to oblivion.

Harry's speech left everyone deep in thought for over twenty minutes. That's when they heard the sound of banging, metal on metal somewhere in the complex below.

"Let's go." said Harry.

HPTWD

It took them half an hour to narrow down just where the sound was coming from. Outside a cell. Harry's patronus was waiting while a very skinny young woman was banging on the door to the cell for all she was worth.

"We're here, calm down ma'am." said Harry. "Alohmora." The cell door popped open and the girl rushed out to hug Harry.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she said repeatedly and so rapidly she was hard to understand.

Hermione gave her a calming drought, which the girl frowned about after getting over the foul taste. "That should calm you down, sorry about the taste."

"I thought I was going to die in there. Reins locked us up weeks ago. I was the only one he fed, said I reminded him too much of his daughter to let me die like the others..." the girl half moaned out. The calming drought was barely working on her apparently.

"What's your name? I'm Hermione, this is Harry, Ron, Neville and Rob." Hermione said, pointing to each of the others in turn.

"Rachel Sanchez, my dad was going to be a guard here. His first job since he got out of the Marines. H-he's gone now, along with most of my family. I have cousins in Atlanta, but I have no idea what's happened to them." the girl responded. Harry pulled her into another tight hug and offered his condolences for her loss.

"She's the only one we've found alive so far. Are there any others here that you know of?" Foley asked.

"No, I'm the last of us. I heard a gun shot earlier. I thought that was it. Reins liked to snipe us from a tower, right into the cells from our windows. Is he still out there?" she asked apprehensively.

"He's been dealt with. You won't be seeing him again." Harry said.

"Good, I hope he rots in hell for what he did to us!" Rachel yelled, the calming drought wearing off.

Hermione pulled the girl off to a corner and sat with her at a bench to talk while the men went about searching the cells for walkers. The stench from one area giving them away.

They found only one active walker. The poor sod had been decapitated by a poorly aimed head shot, so only his head reanimated. They made quick work of the head and started banishing corpses from the cells, all save Rachel's family whom she identified by cell numbers.

The evening, they held a small memorial service for Rachel's family and buried the bodies in a mass grave. Foley returned to Washington to gather a prepping party and returned with them to reorganize the prison for habitation.

Harry and his team, meanwhile, headed for Cynthiana via broomstick...

HPTWD

AN: Here ends the first chapter, I hope you like it so far! Please review, it's not a requirement, but I like feedback for all o0f my stories. Feedback helps me to find errors, get new ideas and in some cases inspires me to work harder on proceeding chapters. Flames will be read for face value, and little else. If you don't like the story, it's simple, don't read it.

Thanks

Martin70


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two: Cynthiana**

The first thing Rick Grimes noted once he was fully awake was his thirst. He'd tried calling for a nurse, but no one had answered his weak call. He rushed, (rushed being a relative term due how weak he felt...), into the bathroom and drank deeply from the tap.

He then looked around his room and noticed several things weren't right. The clock had stopped, he'd thought he'd been hallucinating that, but it was really not working. The flowers he thought Shane had left him were at least two weeks old judging from their dryness, and hadn't been watered in all that time. He looked into the closets near the door and found his uniform. The dress shirt and t-shirt were a total loss having been cut from him during his trip in the ambulance to the hospital. His pants were present though as well as a fresh t-shirt and boxers, socks and shoes. His gun belt and gun were missing however, likely being held by security or Shane had taken it back to the station. He'd have to check with security he thought.

First though, he needed to find a nurse or a doctor. Where the hell was everyone? Just then another thing caught his attention. There was no power in the room. That was a big no-no for any hospital, people could die without power to the machines that kept them alive until they could recover on their own... What the hell was going on? First no nurse to help him, now no power. Something was very wrong here...

He decided to go ahead and dress. His clothes were smelling pretty raunchy, he needed to clean up. He did a quick and awkward bird bath in the sink using cold water, the hot was running cold too... then got dressed as well as he could. His bandage was rank, he'd need to find a new dressing quickly or he'd get a bad infection and that wasn't good at all.

Just as he was about to open the door he heard a commotion in the hall outside. "There's a live one in here Harry." said a female voice, a nurse perhaps? But then how did she know he was in here and what the hell did she mean by her remark? Live one? Of course he was alive in here. Wasn't everyone?

He heard the sound of something being pushed away from his room door and then it opened slowly to reveal four people in odd clothes staring at him and pointing sticks in his general direction... What the hell?

He took a tentative step forward and said, "Is one of you a nurse? I need help..." He pointed to his foul bandage to explain why.

"Are you bitten sir?" asked the woman whose voice he'd heard a moment before. It dawned on him that she had a British accent.

"Bitten?... No, no, I was shot, in the line of duty..." He said, confused by her question. "Who are you people and what the hell is going on here?"

Harry looked at his friends and took a step into the room, putting his wand away and holding up his hands in a peaceful gesture, "My name is Harry Potter, that's Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom. We're from across the pond as you can tell from our accents. We were ordered to look for survivors here in the States and one of ours Seers said we could find survivors here in Cynthiana."

Seers? What the hell? "Seers?"

"Yes, a witch whose an old friend of ours has been over here for several years helping your minister for magic. Wait, do you know about magic? How long have you been in this room?" Hermione said and asked.

Rick wanted to laugh, magic... was this lady for real? "Magic? Are you serious? There's no such thing except for those magician guys who do tricks and illusions. Come on..."

The Brits looked at each other a moment as Rick gave in and began to laugh.

Finally Harry sighed and pulled out his wand again, "Lumos." The light on the end of his wand slightly blinding Rick for a second.

"Great, you have an LED flashlight huh, that's useful..." Rick joked.

Harry muttered under his breath, "Okay, how about this? Expecto Patronum!" Prongs sprang from the end of his wand, in all his silvery glory and began to prance around the room. The spirits of everyone present were lifted by the Patronus' presence.

Rick stumbled back into his bed watching the silvery stag in open disbelief. "What the hell!"

"Is that proof enough for you sir? By the way we gave you our names..." Harry said, trailing off.

Rick pried his eyes away from the amazing sight of Prongs and said, "S-Sorry, Rick Grimes, Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes. So magic is real?"

"Indeed it is Rick," said Ron, speaking for the first time. "We're Wizards and Hermione there is a Witch."

"Could you tell us how long you've been here now?" asked Hermione as she began to rummage in her bag.

"I don't know to be honest. The last thing I remember with certainty is getting shot. After that, I'm pretty sure my partner came to visit and left those flowers over there for me from everyone at the department. I just woke up about an hour or so ago and was about to go looking for help when I heard you guys outside my door. You know the rest." Rick supplied. "Can I get some help with this bandage now?"

Hermione nodded as she pulled a bottle from her bag. "Essence of Dittany should fix you right up sir. Let's get that old dressing off."

Hermione methodically removed his bandage and applied the essence to his wound, which closed and faded away much to Rick's astonishment. "What the hell? What is that stuff, a magic potion?"

"Yes it is in fact. You'll still need to take it easy for a few days and get plenty of fluids, but you'll be fine now." Hermione said, "At least as long as you avoid the inferi..."

"Inferi?" asked Rick in confusion again.

"I'm afraid the world's changed since you were shot Rick. I can call you Rick yes?" Harry asked. At Rick's nod he continued, "Most of the mundane world is in total chaos. A plague hit the muggle population and killed millions of people, that plague then became worse because the dead started to rise again afterward. These dead are what we call inferi, the undead. A single bite or a bad scratch that breaks skin will infect the remaining living muggles and eventually turn them into inferi as well. Muggles, in case you're wondering, are people like yourself that lack a magical core of any kind or mundanes if you prefer.

"It started out slow Rick, but the infection spreads so damned fast! It's like a snow ball rolling down hill. Once it had a good start, nothing could stop it, and until it runs its full course or we find a cure, the world is pretty much doomed. Even we magicals are not long for this world. We're immune to the disease itself so we can't be turned, but we can still fall victim to the inferi and be consumed by them. They have an insatiable hunger that nothing can satisfy and they're equipped to take advantage of this. We are predators after all, Humans I mean. Billions are now dead and walking around again, looking for their next meal, no matter what it is. We saw a large... herd I guess is the best thing to call them, on our way here. They were feeding on buzzards and crows that were foolish enough to try and eat from the walking dead. I haven't seen many of those birds in quite a while. It's likely to mean their extinction if this keeps up."

Rick had turned more and more pale with each word spoken and it looked like Harry had more to tell, but suddenly Rick's mind screeched to a halt as one thought struck him. His family was out there somewhere in this chaos and he needed to find them... NOW! "I have to find my family!" Ricked cried suddenly and started to rush to the door.

Harry called out, "Petrificus Totalus!" Rick froze in mid-step. "Rick! You need to calm down. You can't go running off like that unprepared at what you'll be facing! I'm sorry I had to do that, finite!"

Rick slumped forward a step then hauled back and decked Harry before he could react causing Harry to fall to the floor mildly stunned. "Don't. Do. That. Again..." He looked up to see Harry's friends all pointing their wands at him. "He had that coming, nobody gets between me and my family..."

"We can understand that Rick, I have a large family back home. I'm one of seven siblings." said Ron, trying to calm Rick down.

Harry spoke up as he got up off the floor, "But the last thing you want to do is go running off without fully knowing the situation out there. You want to find your family, we'll help you to do that, but you need a solid plan or you'll die on your own before you can get very far."

Rick had been pacing while Harry spoke. Now he gave a sigh, "You're right, you're right... So tell me, tell me what it's like out there. What can I expect out there?"

The team put their wands away except for Neville who was watching the hallway outside.

Harry spoke, "It's really bad out there, especially in the cities and larger towns. People are dying out there like flies and swelling the ranks of the undead even further every day. Just on our way here from DC we saw hundreds of thousands of inferi walking around aimlessly. Any sound or movement can draw them to you. We think they can also still smell or sense the living, which causes them to frenzy if they realize you're there. A few, one, two or three, are manageable, fairly easy to dispatch, but a large group of four or more by yourself? Run... you might live, you might not, but you have to avoid getting bitten or badly scratched. Follow that rule and you'll do well. Your best bet is to stay with a group, just be cautious with anyone you join up with or let join you. There are a lot of bad people out there running around. We met one of them, a guy that called himself Negan. He had about forty followers at the time, all hardened criminals he'd sprung from a prison. We took care of him and his goons, but he's just a drop in the bucket of what's out there, the scum of the earth have found this new world is almost tailor made for them. There's no law enforcement to stop them from doing whatever they want, so they're out there committing every sin, breaking every law you can imagine and getting away with it.

"The military is in shambles too, what's left of it. We're under orders to save as many people as we can, and that includes your military as we find them. However, some of the military out there are just as bad as Negan ever was. I'll be forced to do some damned distasteful things before this is all over..."

"Harry..." Hermione said, looking worried by that last remark. "What do you mean?"

Harry turned to her, "I've been given a battlefield commission too, as a brigadier general. My orders are signed by the US President and the Minister of Magic. I'm to take command of all US Forces in the field as I find them and send them back to Washington for debriefing and reassignment. Anyone I come across that refuses to recognize that authority is to be dealt with harshly if necessary, permanently if I feel it is called for..."

"Harry, that's just crazy! How can they dump that kind of responsibility on you?" Hermione fumed.

"Calm down Hermione. You're right, up to a point, but then who would they have to send? Let's be honest here. I'm the best suited for the job out here. I know how to survive, I know what needs to be done and I have the dedication to get the job done, or die trying. There's also my 'saving people' thing you always used to harp on about too..." He said the last with a smirk.

Hermione sighed, "I know, hey!..." she punched his arm.

Rick watched their antics for a moment and while it was funny, he had a job of his own to get done, namely finding his family! "Look, I know you mean well and I appreciate what you're saying and the warnings and all, but I really need to get out there!" He looked at Harry now, "Will you help me find my family or what?"

Harry nodded, "Sure Rick. Luna said we'd need people like you to help us figure out how to stop this. If that means we have to find your family to do it, we'll do it." He pulled out a bag from his pack, "Here, take this, you'll need what's in there in case we ever get separated."

Rick opened the bag and goggled at what he saw. Inside was a pile of guns, military issue guns. There were four P-90's, four M4's, a BAR, two grenade launchers and a .308 sniper rifle with a fancy looking scope on it. In a side pocket (that was much larger on the inside than the outside, he noticed) was enough ammunition to outfit a small army, thousands of rounds. He rummaged around and found another pocket with what looked like field ration packs or MRE's, enough for a large group to live off of for many weeks if not longer. A final pocket contained clothes, both military and civilian, enough to meet the needs of a small town – both men and women as well as children of all ages. "This is... this is too weird. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside..."

Ron grinned, "Yeah, that's magic Rick...hehe."

"There's enough in there to outfit a small colony, though the guns are a bit sparse at the moment. Those guns have been modified with magic Rick. I'll be modifying any weapons we find as we go the same way." Harry didn't add that he had enough weapons on him to outfit a full regiment of several thousand in his private pack. Those weapons were for later if needed. "Each weapon has a silencing charm on it so they fire without any noise. Noise equals death out there if you make too much of it at once. They're also charmed for accuracy. Just think about where you want the round to go as you squeeze the trigger and it will go there. Aiming is much easier as a result. The kickback of the weapons is reduced, but not eliminated, that's because you might try to keep firing an empty gun otherwise and get mauled before you can stop to reload. There's a counter that will pop up above the sights magically to help with this as well so you know how many rounds you have left in in the magazine."

"Wow Harry, that's some sophisticated magic. Where did you learn how to do that?" Hermione asked.

"In my travels over the last few years, I've run into some strange stuff. The spells for the weapons were taught to me by a hit wizard in Bangkok." Harry replied.

Rick just stared at the man in front of him dumbly. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that magic was really real. It boggled his mind, but what he'd seen so far was very useful. "I'll need to keep a close eye on this bag, if it fell into the wrong hands it'd be pretty bad for the good people out there."

"Oh, no need to worry about that too much. I just need to key you into the protections on the bag so only you can open it or take anything out of it. Anyone else that tries after the protection wards on it are working will find a bag filled with a few meager supplies. The real pockets will remain shut and inaccessible." Harry supplied.

"That's great, how do we do that?" Rick asked taking comfort from the new information that only he would be able to get at what was inside the bag soon.

"I need to prick your finger and put some blood on the zippers of each pocket." Harry informed Rick.

"Okay, let's do it." Rick said, eager to secure this fount of supplies.

Harry stepped over and used his wand to poke a small hole in Rick's finger. He then muttered a strange chant under his breath while he smeared Rick's finger over the zippers inside the bag. As each was covered in a smear of blood they glowed a golden hue and vanished. After he was done, it looked like the bag was empty, and it felt empty too.

"Let's get some supplies from the cafeteria downstairs to fill this up with as decoys." Harry said.

"That room's full of inferi Harry." Neville reported. "Remember the hall with the warnings on the walls?"

Harry nodded, "I remember. Just keep back when we get there and I'll show Rick what we're up against. Rick, just think about which pocket you want to open and open the bag. You'll find what you want waiting inside. At the moment I suggest you open the gun pocket and get out one of the M4's or P-90's whichever you prefer. Let's finish clearing this floor and the one above though before we head down. I want to check this place for all the supplies we can get. I don't care what it is, if it looks useful. Grab it and put it in these bags, they're bottomless." Harry handed out four bags and then with a wave of his wand he put everything of use in the room in his bag, including the monitors and the bed... all of it shrinking as it neared the opening.

"Um, that's a neat trick, but I can't shrink anything." Rick said in amazement.

"That's okay Rick. You can gather things like toiletries and medical supplies as we go, those don't need to be shrunk." Ron offered.

Rick nodded, "I can handle that I guess." he said feeling a little lost and overwhelmed.

"It's okay Rick. We're with you now, and we'll find your family. Let's just get this done, medical supplies will be in short supply for a long time to come, so we need to hit as many hospitals and pharmacies as we can as well as any big chain stores. But before we do all that, I think we'll find your family and get them all to a safe place." Harry said as they moved out of Rick's room and began to more or less loot the place.

The team was methodical, moving from room to room going one direction down the hall. Neville and Ron would take turns watching their rears as they moved along. Each room was searched and looted. Any bodies were transfigured into little statuettes and placed in his bag. They found many patients had been gunned down in theirs rooms, some taken out properly with a head shot, others not so. These were still moving around their rooms and Rick found out firsthand how bad things had become. The stench of death was so bad that Harry put a bubble-head charm on Rick and himself and had the others do the same.

Rick had retched for several minutes after finding a nurse being fed upon by a fresh walker in one room on his floor. He realized that it was likely because of this nurse that he was still alive. Her death was as recent as last week. It was a sobering and horrifying experience, one he

wished that he'd been able to have stopped, for her sake if not just his own. This new world he found himself in was a terrible one, he was beginning to wonder if his family was okay out there in the middle of it all and his patience was wearing thin as they cleared his floor and the one above it before heading down to the floor below and beginning another sweep.

"Are we almost done here? We're burning daylight..." Rick uttered.

"Yes, this is the final floor. We don't think we'll find much in the basement area, just the boilers and maybe a couple of backup generators on a hospital this small. We'll be coming up on the cafeteria in a moment." Harry said.

True to his word, the doors that were clearly marked 'All dead inside, do not open' came into view shortly thereafter. A board and a thick chain held the doors shut... sort of. There was enough give in the doors that several inferi were pawing at the board and chain in a vain attempt to open them.

Harry began to draw a series of runes on the walls adjacent to the door and chanting under his breath as he went. As he finished each rune it gave off a green glow.

Hermione watched his progress, growing more concerned and more alarmed as she realized just what he was creating, but she kept her mouth shut because one slip might cause Harry to mess up what he was doing and that might cost him his life...

After ten minutes, Harry drew a final rune and then said, "Alright, everyone stand back. I'm going to charge the rune chain and then blow that doorway open. Everyone clear back!" The team and Rick fell back five feet and then readied themselves for a fight, Rick shouldering his M4 while the team unsheathed swords and wands.

Ron handed Rick a fireman's ax from the loot as backup for his M4.

Meanwhile, Harry charge the rune chain he'd created and cast a reducto at the doors, shattering them and sending the nearest walkers flying back into the room behind. The other walkers quickly filled in the resulting vacuum of space and charged through the doorway... and were cut to pieces by the rune chain that had formed a lattice of razor sharp green light like lasers from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

Harry kept charging the runes for several more moments as the undead continued to pour through the doorway, but eventually one rune gave out, then another and another until only half were still active. The spent runes burning a hole into the walls, ceiling and floor as they gave out. As another rune failed, Harry switched tactics and began hurling cutting curses at the heads of the remaining walkers, "Open fire!" he yelled at the others who, up until now, had been merely watching the carnage.

Rick opened up with single shots at the heads of every walker he saw as they became visible. Harry's team launching hexes and curses of their own at those they saw as well. It was overkill...

In the space of time that the fighting lasted, which was less than thirty seconds all told, fifty-six walkers were put down. Only a few stragglers remained in the other areas of the cafeteria when they searched it, those being unable or too uncoordinated to join the pack at the doors.

"Okay, let's clear this area and get the hell out of here..." Harry said. Rick was in full agreement, and not in a little bit of awe at what his new companions were capable of.

HPTWD

After clearing the hospital and marking it on their maps, the team and Rick headed for Rick's neighborhood in the town. They also noted stores and houses that looked untouched as they passed for later scavenging, marking these places on their maps.

The maps were magical and could be scaled from a global view all the way down to a home's interior rooms. It was both a step up and a step down from the Marauders Map in that it had an epic scale of detail, but couldn't be used to track people across the globe. Harry was working on it though and was nearing a breakthrough he hoped would help him to search out other survivors and save as many as he could.

Rick walked down the street with his new friends and came across a woman who'd been badly mauled and eaten by other walkers. The horror of the sight almost unhinged him. He stepped over to her, just out her reach as she slowly crawled along and said, "I'm sorry this happened to you. No one should have to suffer what you've suffered. It's okay now though, I'll help you." He stood up and aimed his M4 at her head an pulled the trigger, ending the woman's suffering as a weak inferi. "Let's go."

The others nodded solemnly and followed after taking a second to bow their heads to the fallen woman.

A few long minutes later, Rick walked into his house calling for his family, "Lori! Carl! Where are you?"

Harry and his friends exchanged looks. "Let's keep an eye open for others. Inferi are going to hear him yelling too so watch for them as well." Harry ordered calmly.

Inside Rick was growing frantic again, there was no sign of his family or where they might have gone. He searched every room, then did it again using his police training. Now he began to notice signs of a hasty evacuation. Clothes were scattered around, though most looked dirty so they were likely from the laundry room and discarded after a moments thought as his family had packed, though Carl's favorite shirt was missing and so were all the family photos from the walls. A quick search in the living room and a few other places revealed that the family albums were gone too. So that must mean that they'd gotten out of the area alive, whenever it was that, that had happened.

Rick stepped out onto the front porch just as a young black boy was sneaking up on Ron with a shovel, clearly about to strike him in the head. "Ron! Look out!"

Ron spun so fast he was a blur of motion, his wand coming up, a curse on his lips. The boy fell back and landed on his ass as Ron's spell missed the boy's head by inches. "AHH!"

"Easy son, we're not going to hurt you." Ron said as he realized he'd almost killed the boy, raising his wand at the very last second to throw off his aim and miss the child before him.

Harry came up behind another black male and said, "Easy now, drop that spade..."

The man stiffened in alarm, but complied as he saw he was covered now by two more people with those odd sticks. Hermione and Neville were those people and they looked a bit miffed. "Let my son be, he thought you were one of those walkers."

"Fair enough. You friendly then or are we going to have a problem here?" asked Harry as he stepped around and in front of the man.

"We're friendly enough, who are you people? Duane, come over to me son. This is my son Duane, I'm Morgan Jones." Morgan said looking warily at Harry's group.

As Duane walked over and joined his father Harry made introductions, then said, "We're here looking for Rick's family. Do you have any ideas as to where they might have gone?"

"Most likely, they went to Atlanta. They've got that CDC place down there searching for a cure. I heard the military bombed the city though just before the radios and TV went quiet. That was weeks ago. It's mighty long odds, but if they were lucky, they'll be down there somewhere." Morgan supplied looking doubtful that Rick's family was still alive.

"We should get inside somewhere before it gets too dark out here." Ron commented.

"I suppose you can bunk in with us, we're in a house up on the corner." Morgan volunteered, if a bit reluctantly. He began walking up the street towards what Rick knew as the Drake residence.

"Are you staying with Fred and Cindy?" Rick asked Morgan as they came up to the door.

"Never met 'em." Morgan replied. "It was empty when we got here." He opened the door and stepped inside with his son. "So, what exactly was that light show about with my boy?"  
Morgan added as the others started to walk in as well.

Rick grinned, "Oh, that? My friends are wizards... oh and a witch, sorry Hermione." he said as Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.

Morgan grunted, "I heard about you people just before everything went dark. I didn't believe what I was hearing, don't think I do now for that matter."

Harry smirked, "Shall I give Morgan and his son my patented demonstration of magic Rick?"

Rick nodded, "I think that would do it Harry. I know I was impressed. Watch this Morgan, Duane."

Harry repeated his spells that he showed Rick, then pulled out one of his many bags. "How well have you been eating Morgan?"

Morgan picked his jaw up off the floor after seeing Harry's Patronus and said, "We've been getting by, but we haven't seen anything in fresh vegetables in weeks, had some apples a few days ago though. There's an apple tree in a backyard three blocks from here."

Harry rummaged through the bag he'd pulled from his pack and began pulling out several fruits and vegetables; fresh carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes and a large pineapple to name just a few.

"Where did you get all this from?" Morgan asked in confusion. He smelled and felt each item, "These are fresh, as if they were gathered today!"

"It was gathered by the house elves of Hogwarts, our magical school in the UK. There's a freshness charm on everything that will last for years, or until the food is used. Then the charm wears off and the food starts to decay as it would normally." Hermione supplied.

"Well this is a feast, I'm grateful for it, thank you." Morgan said feeling moved by these people.

"Morgan, you and Duane should come with us. We are going to be gathering as many survivors as we can, and we could use all the help we can get." Harry stated. Something told him that Morgan was important somehow for their future.

Morgan shook his head sadly, "I, I can't leave just yet. My wife's out there you see. The fever took her right over there on that bed. I was too weak to end her after she turned... I, I just couldn't do it!" He broke down into deep sobs.

Hermione stepped over and offered her shoulder to the distraught man, "It's okay Morgan. You're not the only man who's been unable to do what was needed in this new cruel world we find ourselves in. We saw plenty of situations in the UK that were along the same lines. Others stepped in, when they could, and took care of it. Would you like for us to help you with this? You know she's not there anymore right? Your wife is gone, but her body is out there and it's hungry. You know it's only a matter of time until someone else wanders along and becomes a meal for her and the others out there. Let us end this miserable existence they're in and then we can get Duane to somewhere safe, okay?"

Morgan was full of self doubt. He wanted to end his wife's suffering himself, but he'd been too weak before to do it. He wanted to tell them no, that he would deal with her, but his heart was breaking at the thought of what she'd become and he still wasn't sure if he could do it now, even with these people here to back him up. After a long debate in his head, Morgan finally said, "I want to end it for her myself, but there are so many of them out there, I'll need help to find her and get this over with."

Harry stepped back from the door and said, "She's in her mid thirties and wearing a long white night gown yes?" At Morgan's startled nod, "She's at the front door..." Harry pulled out a magically silenced 9mil and offered it to Morgan. "You can end this right now, or I can do it for you. It's up to you..."

"That will make too much noise..." Morgan said, not knowing about the charm on the weapon.

"It's magically silenced." Harry aimed at a picture on the far wall and fired. The bullet made a dull thump as it passed through the picture, a painting with no glass to break, thankfully. "See?"

Morgan nodded, he walked over and took the gun, then looked through the peep hole in the door to see his wife peeking in back at him. He took a step back and put the gun up in place of his eye, "God forgive me..." and pulled the trigger...

Outside, Morgan's wife flew back into the yard, a hole in her head... She didn't get back up, and none of the other walkers seemed to notice her sudden demise.

Morgan broke down and went off to hug his son so they could grieve together in private...

HPTWD

The next morning, Rick persuaded the group to go to the police station. He wanted to gather his favorite gun, if it was there, and other supplies the station should have on hand, if no one had looted the place yet...

As it turned out that the supplies were present as well as his favorite gun. Shane had left it in Rick's desk drawer. Harry and Hermione gathered everything of use from the station, along with all the vehicles and the fuel supply, gathering the fuel into fifty-five gallon drums and then shrinking the barrels for storage in the one of the bottomless bags Harry seemed to have a never-ending supply of. When they shrank and bagged the vehicles floored Morgan and Rick, while bringing a grin from Duane for the first time since the day before.

Hot showers were had by everyone and Rick shot his fellow deputy turned inferi before they all gathered in two cars, Harry driving one, Rick the other. There next stop, Atlanta...

HPTWD

 **AN:** So, another chapter done. I've not really kept a word count on this story so far, but I try for at least nine or ten pages in Verdana, 10 font per chapter. I've found this to be a good size in the past and makes for an easier read I've been told by reviewers and friends. I like to read long stories myself, but I see some people complain if they're too long. Anyway, enough of my rambling. I'll see you all next time!

 **AN2:** Also, thank you to all of you who've added this story to your following and/or favorites lists and to those who've reviewed... It helps me knowing someone out there has shown some interest in my work.

Martin70


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three: On The Road To Atlanta**

 **AN:** Hello all, once again thank you to all of you who've added this story and/or myself to your following and/or favorites lists, and to those who've posted a review! It means a lot to me to see how popular my story is becoming and I hope to see that popularity grow as the story progresses.

This chapter was originally going to be the group getting to Atlanta and meeting up with Glen and the gang we all know and love from first season, but my muse had other plans and wanted to do a little leg stretching. So, without further ado, I give you the next chapter!

PS: See the first chapter for the disclaimer, nuff said. Peace

 **On The Road To Atlanta...**

"Harry, let's pull over at the next rest stop. I think we could all use a break." Rick called out over a mirror Harry had given him at the start of their drive towards Atlanta. The mirror was an ingenious piece of magic. Harry mentioned that he'd had a mirror like it once growing up at Hogwarts, but it had broken. Over the last several years, Harry had learned how to recreate the the communication mirrors and was now putting them to use. The key for the mirrors to work with each other was that they were cut from the same piece of mirrored glass. Harry had a set of ten that he'd created in this way from a larger mirror he'd enchanted.

"Sure Rick, sounds like a good idea." Harry replied as Ron moved another car out of their way with a levitation charm as he rode his broom and scouted the route ahead. Charms had become his thing after Hogwarts. Ron had tried to make a go of it at Auror training after Harry had disappeared, but his heart just wasn't in it without Harry around to motivate him. He'd ended up working with his brother George at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes until the world went crazy.

He'd lost Hermione's heart during this time, his lack of motivation a point of contention between them that they'd been unable to overcome. She'd left him when he'd refused to fight with her anymore about anything at all. She'd loved their 'debates' over the years and found their arguments very... stimulating... Without that stimulation to their relationship, it had fallen apart. No true love was there she'd realized. It had broken her heart and forced them both to realize that they weren't meant to be. She'd moved back into her parents old home that night.

Hermione was in the car with Harry, which was taking up the rear position in the two vehicle convoy. She'd spent the years since the Battle of Hogwarts working on her masteries in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. She'd gained them in half the time normally required, breaking records that the old purebloods said were impossible to break. In fact, the purebloods had accused her of cheating and tried to rescind her masteries, but she'd managed to receive a hearing to contest this move. In her hearing, she'd answered every question thrown at her, performed every demonstration of her skills demanded of her and finally proved she deserved to hold her masteries to the entire wizarding world. After this persecution, Hermione had further found that she was nearly unable to find a job anywhere in wizarding Britain and decided to go back to the muggle world and study medicine. She'd thought about moving to Australia, but that was too painful for her. She'd found her parents alive and well and restored their memories only for them to reject her for the violation she'd committed against them by wiping their memories of her.

She was working as an intern in a hospital in London and had never felt better about her new life until the world began to fall apart.

Now, she was sitting back in the passenger seat of the car and trying to get a bit of rest. She'd spent half the day moving vehicles out of their path until Ron had taken over after eating lunch. If they kept up this pace, they would reach the outskirts of Atlanta in two days.

Harry glanced over at her as he drove, "Are you awake Hermione?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Let's get ready, the rest stop ahead will likely be full of walkers." Harry said as they slowed and began to pull onto the rest stop's on ramp. Already, Harry could see a large camp coming into view. It was becoming more obvious by the second that the rest stop had been used as a refugee center... Several areas, that had previously been open before the advent of the Inferi Apocalypse, had been fenced off. This had been done to hopefully minimize losing the whole camp in the event that some of the temporary residents turned and began to feed on the others still living. Sadly, each section had at least one resident who'd turned and thus spread the infection to the others in their sections... The result was a rather large herd of walkers fenced off from each other in compartmentalized areas from the rest stop buildings that had been built before the world went to crap. There were several hundred walkers, all fenced off from each other in groups of up to twenty. Each grouping had walkers of all ages from the youngest being six to the oldest being in their eighties, and that was just the walkers that Harry's team could see...

Needless to say, when Rick and Harry pulled up to the main building that contained the loos or restrooms as the yanks called them and a vending area, the walkers that could see them began to work up a bit of a frenzy. The walkers were naturally hungry and the cars' pulling up was ringing the dinner bell...

"Let's do this by the numbers gang." Harry called out. "Notice-me-nots on our muggle friends and scent blocking charms as well, then cast disillusionment spells on yourselves." Harry put paid to words and began casting spells on the muggles in the group. Finally disillusioning himself last as the others faded from view as well. The magicals' suits kept their scent from being noticeable as the walkers pushed at the fences that bordered where they'd parked. Thankfully, the fences were too much for the few walkers in each section to overcome at least for now. After several minutes, the walkers eventually lost interest in the now stopped cars and didn't see the walking meals they'd seen only a moment before anymore and began to wander away from the fence.

Rick put on a pair of glasses that Harry had given him that let him see the others in the group. They were originally used as safety glasses for industrial workers, but they had a cool sleek look to them, similar to the ones he'd seen a few years back in the horror movie "Thirteen". He liked them because they looked like his pair he'd used at the shooting range. The others were all wearing a pair like his, but it was strangely close to that movie in that if he took them off, he would literally see his new friends just disappear, yet could see them looking through the lenses of the glasses.

"This is a bit depressing Harry." Rick added as he took a good look around. "Everyone's dead or walking dead here. Maybe we should just go."

Harry glanced at Rick then said, "Maybe so, but there could still be valuable supplies here. We should begin a quick sweep of the main building and then check out some of the prefabs they've got set up over there." He pointed to a set of prefab buildings that were only visible now because of a depression in the ground that had hid them from the road. "If we have to, we can clear this place out and strip it down too, but that will take some time."

Rick mulled it over. He wanted to get to his family as fast as possible, but the thought of leaving supplies behind that could help the group and his family later on down the road made him falter in his desire to see them again. "How long?"

Harry took a long look around then glanced at the other magicals in the group. Hermione and Ron were watching him while Neville was watching the nearest group of walkers for signs of detection of the group.

"Two hours minimum Harry." Hermione spoke up. "We can clear the main building here and the prefabs in that time frame. The rest of the camp... another three at best, so at least five to seven hours for the whole thing."

Harry sighed, "What's your opinion Rick?"

"Let's do the building first, then evaluate a couple of these fenced off sections to see if they're worth the effort. They might have medical supplies and maybe some food in these fenced off areas, but not much else worth grabbing, then there's the walkers in each section to deal with, so let's do it that way and go from there." was Rick's reply as he looked at one of the fenced off areas.

Harry nodded, "Alright, let's do it that way. Neville, Morgan and Duane, stay here at the cars and have them ready to run in case we lose containment of the situation. Ron, defensive spells, I will clear the rooms as we go. Rick, you and Hermione watch our backs. Wands and guns ready, let's go." Harry pulled a 9mil from its holster on his leg and drew his wand, the others drawing their weapons as well.

They entered the ladies room first and found two walkers inside stalls. A quick shot to their heads and the lady walkers were troubled no more with trying to walk with their panties around their ankles... Hermione cleaned out the machines in there of feminine hygiene products and checked to see if the faucets were working. They weren't, but then an aquamenti charm meant they had no lack of water anyway so they moved on.

The men's room was empty of walkers and anything else of worth. The condom machine was busted open already and empty. Rick just shrugged at the vandalism and they moved on to the vending area and traveler's bureau room.

Inside they found half a dozen walkers and several bodies that had been fed upon and were too far gone to turn. Harry put a bullet in each head anyway, just to be sure. The vending machines were already empty as well, but they did find three pallets of MRE's in a back storage room that was heavily locked up. Ron put paid to the locks with a simple unlocking charm and they gathered the supplies. That cleared the main building, so they moved on to the prefabs.

There were four prefabs in one area and another single larger prefab set up near the fenced off areas. The first of the four prefabs held a records office and what looked like an intake area. A careful look around proved that the prefabs were part of a local national guard post nearby. Several walkers in the building were dressed in military fatigues. The group dispatched these and searched the building for supplies, but found little of note. Rick bagged the computers in the room anyway for later use. He was hoping to find more information about the national guard post's location because he was sure there would be more supplies and more importantly weapons there.

The next two buildings were wet up as hospital wards and contained quite a few walkers. Ron and Hermione cast shields against physical attacks while Rick and Harry took out the walkers that were held at bay by the shields. Once the walkers were down, the buildings were stripped down to the studs.

The last of the four had a mess hall set up to it as well as a small infirmary. They found a lot of spoiled food, fruits, vegetables, and meats in the now dead freezers and refrigerators, but also another five pallets of MRE's that were quickly gathered and one pallet of basic medical supplies which was also nabbed. The walkers here were surprisingly few and were barely worth a footnote in this story, the group of four taking them out with little effort.

The fifth prefab was set up as an administration building and was heavily defended with sandbagged areas containing automatic machine guns mounted in place. The area around the front of the building was strewn with the dead, an obvious fire fight had occurred there. Over fifty bodies were laying, almost all facing towards the gun emplacements, though a dozen were facing away, apparently gunned down by the soldiers that were meant to protect them. A few of the bodies held hunting rifles and shotguns, or pistols, but most had only a knife of homemade club. A few had nothing at all... It was a slaughter, pure and simple and made Harry's blood begin to boil.

Rick wasn't far behind him, "What the hell happened here? Why did these people have to die?"

"What happens everywhere nowadays Rick. People died, the rest panicked, the soldiers all panicked too from the looks of it. It's a bloody travesty! The soldiers should have kept their cool and taken control of the situation. My bet is, the power failed and they forgot to bring any generators, or the generators failed and the food spoiled because some idiot soldier was too stupid to distribute the food before it could. That caused these people to riot and this slaughter was the end result..." Harry managed to spit out. "The bastards that caused this had better be dead, or so help me!"

Rick gave a firm nod, which was followed by a pale Hermione and a green Ron. "We'll find them if they're still alive and deal with them when we do. Let's get this building checked, then look at the nearest fenced section to see if they're worth searching. I'm thinking they aren't if the soldiers left them to starve..."

"We might be able to recover some camping gear from those sections, but we have plenty of that at the moment already. I say we just go after we have a look." Ron said.

Harry gave a short nod. "We do need to check them at least, even if we don't take anything. Let's finish this up. We're wasting time talking..."

Now, some time had passed, so Harry's group was no longer under disillusionment or notice-me-not charms and they'd entered an area that no walkers outside them could see, thus when Harry opened the door- he was almost shot in the face by a pistol round fired from a .38 special revolver held by a young looking brown-haired girl. "Don't come any closer!" she cried out. Harry simply reacted to the threat and cast a stunner at the girl, dropping her before she could re-cock the gun to shoot another round. The round she'd fired embedded itself in the wall next to the door... all of this happening in the space of two seconds.

Ron stared at the hole in the wall and said, "Bloody hell!"

Hermione smirked at Ron after regaining her composure, "Language Ron..." she half joked, earning her a small scowl from the redheaded Weasley.

Rick almost grinned at their byplay, but then stepped over to the girl and disarmed her. As he did, a boy, no more than six rushed to the girl and yelled at Rick, "Leave my sister alone!" brandishing his small fists to hold off the big looking man.

Harry held up his hands, as did Rick and the others. "Easy there son. We're not here to harm anyone. We're here looking for survivors and to help those we can find."

The boy yelled, "I'm not your son! My Daddy's in the next room, and when he sees what you did to Sandy, he'll bop you one! You'll be real sorry!"

Hermione stepped up slowly to the boy and downed girl, Sandy. "Hi, um, you don't need to be afraid of us, we just reacted to your sister shooting at us. I'm sure you can understand that we have to be careful of strangers and keep ourselves safe from them too. Say, my name's Hermione, what's yours?"

The boy eyed Hermione suspiciously before reluctantly answering, "Colin. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, and I'll bop you one if you come any closer!"

Hermione stopped moving closer and replied, "It's okay now Colin, we're here to help you and your family find a safe place to live again, and I told you my name so we're not strangers anymore right?" She pointed to the others in turn, "That guy by the door is Harry, the redhead is Ron, and this is Rick. Say Colin, do you want to see a magic trick? Harry and Ron are wizards and I'm a witch! Oh, and Rick here is a police officer so you know he's okay right?"

Colin's face lit up at the word magic and disbelief followed when she said she was a witch. He looked at Harry and Ron with a bit of suspicion, and gave Rick a speculative look. "You're not a witch! Your face isn't green and you don't have a long nose or a big wart on it! And where's your broom and black cat if you really are? You sure you're a police man? Wizards? What's that?"

Rick knelt down as inoffensively as possible and smiled at the boy, "Yes Colin, I'm a county sheriff's deputy. I can speak for these people, they're really nice and won't hurt you okay? Hermione really is a witch, but she's a good witch so she doesn't look like a bad one for good reasons! Harry and Ron are like Hermione just sorta boy witches okay?"

Colin scrunched his face up when Rick said his last sentence and said, "Eww! That's nasty! Boy witches, ugh!" Naturally everyone started to laugh and this eased the boy's tension considerably. "You can really do magic Her-my-owe-knee?" He asked, trying to get the pretty witch's name sounded out correctly with a look of determination.

Ron squawked, "Boy witches! We're wizards!" Harry just grinned at Rick's joke and stepped a little closer to the boy and unconscious girl.

"Colin, I'm sorry I knocked out your sister, can I wake her up now? I need to do magic to wake her though okay so don't be afraid alright?" asked Harry.

Colin looked to Rick who gave a firm nod of encouragement, "Okay, but I've got my eye on you!"

Harry nodded solemnly and pointed his wand at Sandy, "Enervate!"

Sandy woke with a sudden jerk, then took stock of where she was, her face growing more fearful by the microsecond, "Colin, get behind me! Where's my gun!" She looked frantically for it, finding it only as Rick pulled it from the back of his pants and showed it to her. "Give that back!" cried the twelve year-old girl looking truly angry and frightened at the same time.

"Easy now Sandy, my name is Officer Rick Grimes. I'm a deputy sheriff, so you're in safe hands now okay?" Rick said in a calm level tone, and making an effort not to 'talk down' to the scared young lady. "My group found this place and we came in here looking for more people and for supplies. Now, if you'd like, we can take you and your family with us and keep you safe, or we can also send you to a place where you and your family can be safe and get plenty of food and rest. You don't need to be afraid anymore Sandy, okay?"

Sandy was already shaking her head in denial, "You're here to kill us and take our stuff! Colin run!" She started to fall back, pulling Colin's arm forcing him to go with her.

Colin shook her off in a surprising show of strength, "Stop it Sandy! These people aren't bad ones! They could have killed us both by now if they wanted too! One's a police man for cryin' out loud!"

His words sank into Sandy's panicked mind, finally finding purchase with the part about Rick being a cop. The last four words also sank in, Colin had learned the phrase from Stargate SG-1, her favorite show, and he only used them when he was really frustrated with her or Dad. She turned around and stared at Harry and company for a long moment. "You don't want to hurt us?" she asked in half disbelief, half hopefulness. At the shake of their heads, "Please, my Dad's wounded. I've been trying to tend his wounds, but I don't have a clue how to fix him! You've got to help us!"

Sandy rushed towards a doorway at the back of the room that was obscured by shadow. Colin was nodding vigorously, "Yeah, he's got a really bad fever! Can you help us?" He grabbed Hermione's hand and tried pulling her toward the doorway.

Harry called out, "Easy, easy, we'll all come and see what we can do. Hermione, be careful!" He and Ron were hot on her and Colin's heels as Sandy disappeared into back room. Rick followed at a more cautious pace, bringing up the rear of the group.

In the room, they found Sandy using a wet wash cloth on the forehead of a very sick looking man in his mid thirties. Hermione was already running medical scans with her wand and looking at the results carefully. With a relieved sigh she said, "He's not infected by the inferi virus, but he is running a severe fever and weak from blood loss. He's been shot in three places, his right bicep, his left shoulder and his left, um his left buttock..." she stuttered out the last, embarrassed a little.

Harry gave a nod, "So Fever Reducing Potion, Blood Replenishing Potion, and we need to clean his wounds, make sure the bullets and any shrapnel are out and seal them with healing charms. Some bruising ointment and scare remover gel should fix him right up after that, with lots of rest and food. Sound about right?"

Hermione nodded, already pulling said potions, ointment and gel from her bag. She cast three scourgify charms on the man, cleaning him with magic, then spelled the fever reducer and blood replenishing potions into his stomach, she then cast vanishing spells at the bullets and shrapnel in the man's body that Harry helped to point out with a few specialized diagnostic spells. After that, she simply cast episky charms on the wounds and sealed them. She added a fever reducing ointment directly to the now red and angry looking new skin that had formed over the wounds to speed up the healing process there. A bruising ointment followed around the impacted area to take care of the bruises that resulted from getting shot and finally added the scar remover gel when the skin took on a healthier sheen and the wounds had scarred up.

It took them an hour to finish up, then Hermione checked the man again giving a satisfied nod at the diagnostic results. "He should make a full recovery. I recommend we send them to Coleman though rather than keep them with us. They have a full hospital there and should be up and running by now. Let me check about that first though." Hermione pulled out one of the mirrors and called out, "Luna Lovegood."

A moment later, Luna's face appeared in the mirror. "Hello Hermione, did you need something?"

"Yes, is the facility at Coleman up and running yet? We have a man here who needs to be in a hospital for a few days and we're not at Atlanta yet. I don't want to send him there without someone who can take care of him and his family though either." replied Hermione.

Luna checked a clipboard mounted to a nearby wall. "Coleman is up and running on a skeleton crew, but they shouldn't have any problem taking in your new friend. Give me your GPS coordinates and I'll send a team to you to collect him."

"He has two children with him as well." Hermione informed Luna.

"Alright, I'll tell the recovery team, two more won't be a problem." said Luna.

Harry grabbed the mirror from Hermione's hand, "Hey Luna, advise them the area is hot, I repeat hot with inferi activity. I recommend they apparate directly to inside this building." He rattled off a GPS reading to Luna that would put the team in the room outside the room they were currently in and then added, "We've found our first objectives, an officer named Rick Grimes and Morgan Jones and his son. Do we need to bring Morgan and his boy along or can they join the new people we just found at Coleman?"

Luna's eyes seemed to glaze over for moment, "Morgan can go to Coleman for now, but he needs to join you later to find some others. That's all I can be sure of at the moment. His thread is unclear to me right now..."

"His thread?" Harry asked.

"Yes Harry, his life thread, I can see the weave of the Three Fates quite clearly sometimes now. It's beautiful, but this plague has twisted the fabric of life itself into a torturous web of shadows... I can't really explain it to you any better right now Harry, but I know Morgan is very important to untwisting the fabric. He may be the key we need to save the world, or at least a part of it." Luna tried to explain before giving up with a growl of frustration.

Harry gave what she'd said some thought, before he too gave up, not having enough of the answers to make any headway understanding everything she'd said. He sighed, "Okay Luna. I'll keep this in mind. Here's Hermione back." He handed the mirror back to Hermione.

Hermione and Luna talked quietly for a few moments before the American wizards popped into the outer room of the building they were in. Before the group was split up, Harry went out to get Morgan and took him aside and explained the plan to him. Morgan agreed to go to Coleman to see to the safety of his son and would then see where he might be of help there.

After they parted, Harry turned back to Sandy and Colin, "Sandy, how was your father shot in the first place?"

Sandy replied, "We came here a few days ago and managed to sneak this far into the camp during a bad storm. The deaders were distracted and confused by all the thunder and lightning so we were able to get by them pretty easy. When we stepped into this place, three soldiers started shooting at us. It was really scary, so me and Colin hid, but by then Daddy was hurt. The men pulled my dad into that room and started asking him a bunch of questions and one was looking around for us, but we hid pretty good under a desk. One of the others called the searching man back and a few minutes later they just left... I went to check on Daddy and found him tied up. I untied him, but then he fell asleep and I couldn't wake him. That was two days ago, then you came."

"I see," said Harry, "well Sandy, we're going to send you, your brother and your Daddy to a nice safe place okay?"

Sandy nodded, they'd helped her father, so they must be nice people, and this talk of magic was exciting!

Harry gestured to the American wizards and the kids joined their father who was now on a stretcher. A moment later, Harry's group was two people shorter as Morgan and Duane also vanished with the recovery team.

"Let's start looking at one of the closed off sections and give it a quick once over." Harry suggested. The others all nodded and got to work.

HPTWD

By now, night was fast approaching, so, after they'd checked a few of the fenced off areas of the camp, Rick reluctantly agreed that they needed to bed down for the night. They stayed the night in the admin building by pitching a wizarding tent there and then casting various wards to protect them from the walkers and those not so nice people that might show up.

One ward was an Intent Ward, if anyone came near with the intent to harm anyone living they might find, the ward would go off and warn Harry's group of approaching trouble.

Thankfully, no such trouble came calling that night, nor did any walkers stray into their building, so their rest was uninterrupted. The following morning, Harry stepped out of the building and took a long look at the fenced off walkers, a sad expression on his face.

Hermione joined him and silently contemplated the scene before them for a few moments before finally speaking, "So many ruined lives... It's sickening..." A single tear ran down her left cheek.

Harry only nodded. The scene was a sad one, but the more he thought about it, the more angry he became by all the walking death now before him. "I can't leave them like this. Somehow, they'll eventually break free, some of them at least, and this will spread again, until there's no one left..."

Hermione stepped up to Harry, "We can stop this, we have to Harry!"

Harry took a long look into her eyes, "We will Hermione, together..." He took her hand. "So mote it be..."

The others came out and joined them. Ron having heard their last few words said, "Count me in too mate."

Neville and Rick looked at each other for a moment, Rick nodded, "Count us in to mate." Neville added.

"So, what are we going to do now?" asked Rick as Harry eyed the undead before him.

"Now we end their suffering. Hermione, get the others to the cars and get them down the road a ways, I don't want any collateral damage when I do this..." Harry said as he drew his wand and visibly began to exude a greenish glow of magic as he gathered his power.

She took one look at him and then just gestured to the others, "Let's go!"

They began to run towards the cars. As they ran, Rick called out, "What's he going to do?"

Hermione puffed out, "Just worry about getting clear! You'll see what's going to happen soon enough!" She ran harder...

Rick and the others picked up on her urgency easily enough, so just pushed themselves harder.

Back at the admin building, Harry was beginning to glow rather brightly, and it was drawing the attention of some of the walkers along the fence he was facing. The walkers began to push at the fence, trying to move it aside so they could get closer to the meal before them...

Harry raised his wand over his head and began to move it around like he was at an old cowboy rodeo, whirling the wand as if the end held a lasso, but no lasso came forth, instead a steady fiery circle formed above his head. As it did so, Harry began to walk forward towards the fence and the walkers behind it, the fiery circle growing in both size and depth. As he neared the fence, it began to glow a deep red, then it began to melt... But, by now, the heat was so intense around the man who was once called the-boy-who-lived, that the walkers were also beginning to smolder. As the fence finally melted, the walkers closest to it burst into an intense flame, burning to ashes in seconds. The rest of the walkers in the immediate area soon followed suit...

Back at the cars, the heat was already getting Hermione's attention, "We need to move! NOW!" She grabbed her wand and shrunk the cars, then stowed them away. "Rick!" Rick took her hand as she held it out and with a sudden pop, they vanished. Ron and Neville right behind them...

They reappeared a mile away, further down the road on a rise and turned to look back at the camp. What Rick saw astounded him...

A column of fire was now rising two hundred feet into the air, pure unadulterated flame right out of the gates of hell, and even here, a mile away, he could feel the heat of it as the fire consumed the camp...

Back at the camp, Harry gave a long weary sigh, then let the fire go, around him the very earth was turned to glass. Of the camp, and for that matter the rest stop, nothing remained. All had been consumed, melted or destroyed.

It wasn't easy controlling that much fire and Harry was nearly exhausted after doing so. He had just enough magic left to see where Hermione and the others were, and apparate to them, then he simply collapsed, the darkness taking him...

HPTWD

 **AN2:** I know, a bit of a cliffy, but it seemed like a good place to stop this chapter. I'm at over 5,500 words and that's a good amount to me. I really enjoyed writing this chapter for some reason, and I look forward to my muse further surprising me with chapters like this. It adds good action and content without detracting from the main story plot and it even gave a few hints into what's might be the key to solving this mess from Luna (Never Loony) Lovegood.

Now then, hopefully my muse is appeased and I can get on with the main story line in the next chapter... Sometimes she can be a fickle bitch though. /sigh...

Until next time!

Martin70


	5. Chapter Four

**For Alan Rickman, may he rest in peace...**

 **Chapter Four: Atlanta**

The next thing Harry noticed was the steady rhythm of the tires on the roadway as the car he was apparently in traveled along it as he woke. He still felt quite tired, but wasn't nearly so much as before. He raised his head from the pillow it rested on and found himself in the back seat of the car he'd been driving when they reached the camp. Hermione was driving. "Hey, Mione."

"Harry!" Hermione gave a start, "Rick! Harry's awake!" she called out towards an open mirror case.

"Okay, let's pull over up ahead and stretch our legs." Rick's voice answered as the man acknowledged her comment. "I know we all have questions for him."

Harry gave a sigh at that. He'd been dreading displaying the amount of power he'd shown back at the camp, but he'd felt he had no choice if he wanted to eliminate the threat the walkers back there represented. Sure, some stuff might have been salvageable back there too, but the danger involved in obtaining that salvage wasn't worth risking his group, even if he had three other magicals and Rick to back him up. Hell, even adding the American wizards into the mix wouldn't have changed the odds by much, thus he'd left that option dangling. No, he'd done what he had to do to save who knows how many others that might have tried to search the place as they had, or worse, if that herd had manage to break free and run amok across the countryside.

Hermione soon pulled the car over behind Rick's and got out, Harry reluctantly following. Ah well, he might as well face the music and be done with it.

As soon as he got out of the car, Hermione rounded on him and yelled, "Harry James Potter! What the BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING! YOU COULD HAVE DIED BACK THERE THROWING THAT KIND OF MAGICAL POWER AROUND!"

Hermione's voice had grown an octave that would have done one of Molly's howlers proud...

Harry surprised himself by starting to chuckle... then to laugh, and then nearly throwing himself on the ground in a laughing fit, but catching himself before it could happen, "Oh.. Her... Hermione, how I've missed you... hehe..." Hermione's face went from livid to thunderous. Seeing this Harry held up his hand, "Easy Hermione, I'm sorry I scared you so much back there. I really am, I've also missed you because you," he glanced at Ron, "and Ron here kept me grounded. I've missed that something fierce. You have no idea where I've been these past years or what I've done, I understand that-"

Hermione interrupted him, "Don't try to play this off as experience to me Harry! Fiendfyre isn't something to be trifled with!"

"That wasn't Fiendfyre, it was something more primal called Elemental Fire. You don't try to control it like Fiendfyre, instead you ask it to do what you want and it takes it from there, so there's no struggle for dominance and no danger to the caster. If your request isn't focused enough, the spell simply won't work at all." Harry explained.

Hermione was a little gobsmacked by this, "Where did you learn that?" she finally asked.

"In Tibet. I spent two years there learning to focus my magical core like the monks there do. The Muggles call it focusing your Chi. The magical monks just called it Focusing. I learned a lot of new magic from them, as well as others around the world." Harry informed her.

"Wicked..." said Ron.

"And where did you learn to charm muggle firearms?" asked Hermione.

Harry sighed, he knew she'd ask this eventually. In fact he was surprised she hadn't been quizzing him about the spells, charms, and runes that were on the weapons in question. "I learned them from a Russian hit wizard." In actuality, the man had been an assassin of the highest order and an American, but he'd sworn on his life and magic to keep the man's identity secret. _I wonder how Martin is doing?_ He thought. Harry hated to lie about it, but he wasn't about to die or lose his magic by confiding with his old friends.

Only somewhat mollified by his answers, Hermione said, "You could still have died back there Harry. That had to draw a tremendous amount of magic from your core. Merlin, you might have burned yourself out and become a squib!"

"No, the magic only takes so much and then cuts off before that can happen. The monks were very specific when they taught me that spell." replied Harry.

Neville called out from his guarding position, "Inferi coming, a small herd, about a hundred! They're coming up from the south..."

"Are you up for a fight Harry?" asked a worried Rick. He'd listened to the conversation with some fascination and was amazed by what he'd heard. Harry was a power unto himself, and had Rick met him in another life, he might have been scared of the young man, but this was not so now. Now, Rick had fought side by side with the wizard and his friends, he counted Harry as a good friend and a good man to have watching your back, something that was essential in this mad new world he'd woken up in.

Harry looked over at Rick and grinned. "Sure, shall I demonstrate another spell I learned Mione?" he said, glancing to her as he spoke.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked.

"This..." said Harry, then began to cast his spell. A circle formed around the group, fifty feet in diameter. Harry then made an upward gesture with his hand and the very ground they were standing on began to tremble. A crack in the earth formed along the glowing line and then a loud bang occurred as the circled area began to rise out of the ground. The area continued to rise forty feet into the air, revealing a hole of equal distance deep...

The walkers, alerted by all the noise, began to move a little faster hoping for a meal. As they came up to the lip of the hole, the first few stopped in confusion, but those behind them would not be denied a meal so the first were pushed forward... over the edge... This started off a sort of domino effect, those in front being pushed forward by those behind them. It was a sheer drop to the bottom, where walkers landed, breaking legs, arms and necks, along with the occasional crushed skull.

As the last few approached, with none behind them to do the pushing, the sounds of those still active below finished the work of drawing in the rest to their doom below.

Harry had remained stationary in the center of the raised area, so he couldn't see when the last walker fell, yet he seemed to sense it nonetheless and let the area drop slowly back into place. A brief flash of light later, where the edge had been, and there was no sign anything odd had ever happened there...

Through it all, Hermione, Ron and Neville's mouths were dropped open in astonishment, they were unable to speak...

Rick walked over to the "edge" and inspected the road pavement. There was no sign of any crack or other disturbance. "Amazing." He walked back to Hermione and closed her gaping mouth, "Remind me to never piss off Harry..." Hermione only nodded dumbly.

"Bloody Hell..." Ron and Neville said in unison.

Hermione's absentminded, "Language..." was ignored by everyone, including herself. "What the bloody hell was that?"

Harry smirked, "More elemental magic, Chinese wizard taught me that one. He worked for an excavating company there. He could move up to ten times as much earth as I just did."

Hermione just shook her head in befuddlement, "Harry, this magic is way beyond anything I've seen a wizard do before. Not even Dumbledore-"

"Dumbledore could do it too. He had a strong sense with fire and water magic, which is kind of strange really, they usually don't manifest themselves well in one wizard like that. It's usually two related elements like earth and fire, air and fire, or water and earth. Anyway, I saw him use fire in the Inferi cave and water during the battle at the Ministry. Looking back, he was clearly using elemental magic." interrupted Harry.

Neville spoke up, "Um, while this has all been interesting and everything, shouldn't we get going? We're burning daylight, and I for one don't want to drive in the dark..."

"Fine, but don't think this is over Mr. Potter. We will be picking this up again later." harrumphed Hermione.

With that they all piled into the cars and got moving again.

Harry, though, was receiving the silent treatment from Hermione the rest of the day.

HPTWD

They stopped at a farm that night and saved a lone horse that was abandoned by its dead owners. The owners were found in the living room, dead from head shots with a shotgun. They used magic to clean up the house and gave the old couple a proper burial under a large red oak tree behind the house, then spent the night.

The following morning, Harry's troop rolled into Atlanta. At first there were only a few scattered walkers, which were ignored as they weren't really a threat. Neville was on point and heard the helicopter before he saw it reflected on a skyscraper. He pointed toward the sky and made a twirling motion with his hand.

Harry and Rick saw this and gave a wave of acknowledgment. Rick wanted to go right after it, but Harry wisely pointed out that the chopper was moving too quickly for them to catch up to it. "It's traveling at least ninety kilometers and hour. The best we can do is maybe half that on the interstate, let alone here in the city streets."

"You could catch it on your broom Harry." Ron pointed out.

"True, but I don't want to abandon the group at the moment to do it. We'll either find them later, or the walkers will." Harry replied.

Rick reluctantly nodded, "Yeah, if I'd been alone though, I probably would have run straight into a mob of these walkers and died a nasty death, if I was lucky... I'm glad I'm with you guys."

Harry's mirror vibrated so he got it out, "Harry, you have a large herd ahead of you and I can at least two men on a roof watching you two blocks up the street." said Luna.

"How are you watching us Luna?" asked a confused Harry.

"We have an eye in the sky watching your every move Harry." Luna said with a grin.

"An eye in the sky... you have a satellite tasked with watching us Luna?" interrupted Hermione.

"Uhuh, we just got access to the national defense mainframes in Colorado, someplace called NORAD..." informed Luna happily. "This muggle technology is amazing."

Hermione just nodded dumbly for a moment then gave a half-hearted wave towards the sky above her.

"Luna, there was a helicopter in our general vicinity a few minutes ago, could you track it for us without losing our position?" asked Rick.

"Sure Rick, It's part of the reason I called. That chopper came from a fenced off community about eighty miles west of Atlanta. It's still in the air and looks to be heading towards a private hospital downtown, one that catered to the super rich. It's a good bet that they're after medical supplies or looking for some rich people that might still be alive there." Luna said.

"Okay Luna, could you just keep an eye on the chopper and let us know when it leaves and where it goes, if it ever does leave. Meanwhile, what can you tell me about our friendly neighborhood watch up the block?" asked Harry.

"One is holding a high powered rifle, a hunting rifle I believe, he's a redneck looking white guy that's currently berating his black companion who's on a radio of some kind talking into it." supplied Luna. "The black man doesn't look like he likes his friend too much."

"They're on a radio? Can you ask the satellite technician to see if he can isolate what frequency they're on?" asked Rick, pulling out a high powered hand-held radio from his bag. He turned it on and set it to begin scanning the CB ranged frequencies.

"She says, it'd be quicker to find the frequency by scanning for it on your radio Rick." Luna called out just as the radio locked onto the signal from the building ahead.

"Base camp, come in. This is T-Dog calling base, do you read me?"... the radio went silent.

"So, we know who the black guy is at least. Should we make contact?" asked Rick.

Harry gave a nod. "If they're bad news, we can just leave them for now, if not, we might be able to get them to safety, or they might know where your family is Rick. Thanks Luna, we'll call you back later." He closed the mirror and gestured to the radio, "It's your show, Officer Grimes..."

Rick gave him a grin then said into his radio. "This is Rick Grimes addressing T-Dog, my group and I are two blocks south of your position and are wondering if you're friendly. If you need help, we can supply it if needed. Do you read me?"

HPTWD

Up on the roof of the department store, T-Dog and Merle exchanged looks of disbelief and Merle looked as if he was about to say something really stupid. In other words, a perfectly normal day for them.

"Aw hell, just what we need, more damned mouths to feed. Five of 'em." uttered Merle. "Let'em rot I say."

T-Dog shook his head, "The more numbers we have, the stronger we are. Shane said to pick up anyone that asked to join us, so we'll ask. Besides, we're trapped here right now, those damned walkers must be smelling you or something..."

Merle gave him a dirty look, "Why you little cotton picker... I oughta-" before he could finish that thought, the radio crackled again.

"This is Rick Grimes again, we're seeing a lot of walkers in your area, they have you surrounded, do you need help?"

T-Dog replied into the radio, "Rick, this is T-Dog, yes, we could sure use your help, but what can five people do against what I'm seeing down at street level?"

"You'd be surprised... Okay then, stand by, the cavalry's coming." came Rick's voice over the radio.

HPTWD

Meanwhile, back at the quarry, Dale was manning the base radio at the camp and heard bits and pieces of what was said. He tried several times to get T-Dog to hear him, but was unfamiliar with the equipment and was failing to do so. He thought about calling for Shane, but decided to wait after he heard that T-Dog was getting some help from some strangers, five of them, he'd managed to pick up.

HPTWD

Harry began to call out some orders, "Ron, Neville, brooms. Get set up for a strafing run. Hermione, Rick you're with me. We're gonna walk right up the middle to the front doors while Ron and Neville set up as a distraction. Ron, once we're inside, head for the roof and keep watch with Neville and our new friends. Let's go."

Harry and Hermione drew their wands and each also drew a silenced nine mil. with an eighteen round clip. Rick kept his gun holstered in favor of his M4. Harry took the lead, with Hermione flanking him on his left and Rick to his right. Ron and Neville buzzed by overhead and began casting spells at the crowd of walkers ahead, clearing a path for Harry and the others.

As Harry marched forward, walkers were flying through the air away from him with tremendous force as Ron and Neville threw bludgeoning hexes left, right and center. The walkers didn't take kindly to this abuse and were now tracking the broom fliers as they strafed by overhead. Many turned to follow them down the street, opening up a clear path for Harry to exploit.

HPTWD

Up on the roof, Merle's mouth was hanging wide open and more than one fly took an unhealthy interest in his tonsils. One fly landed just right, making Merle suddenly gag and cough it up. Needless to say, that was one dead fly as were the next two that came near him.

T-Dog was equally astonished by what he was seeing, but he was also remembering those last days before all havoc broke loose when magic was revealed to the world to be quite real and that there were people out there who could use it. He rolled his eyes at Merle's antics and resumed watching the show below with a large amount of wonder and a small bit of jealousy.

HPTWD

Harry and the ground team only had to drop three walkers before they reached the doors and quickly entered the building. They were met by several pointed weapons...

"Guys, guys, take it easy will ya, they can help us get out of here!" yelled short oriental man in a t-shirt and ball cap, Glen.

"For all we know, they're the ones that got us trapped in here." said a blonde woman, Andrea. A Hispanic man, Moralas nodded.

"No, they're wizards and a witch. They didn't trap us here." said a black woman, Jacqui.

"No, we didn't, in fact we just got into town less than an hour ago, from the north. We saw your situation and T-Dog asked us for help, so here we are." supplied Hermione helpfully. "Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Rick Grimes." she said pointing at each of the group. "Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom are on their way to the roof about now. We have others at a safe camp east of here. We can take you all there if you'd like."

"Whoa, hold on, we just met you guys, how do we know you're trustworthy?" asked a still peeved Andrea.

"I could swear to it on my life and magic, but that just gets old after a while. How about you just give us the benefit of the doubt for now and let us at least get you out of this mess first. Then you can ask us anything you'd like." said Harry in a half exasperated way. If this was how meeting new people was going to be during this mission, they could keep it, well almost...

To reinforce his statement their was a loud bang on one of the doors behind him and the sound of cracking glass. One particularly resourceful walker had picked up a large stone, somewhere...* and was now using it on the glass door in front of him to break his way in. The herd was back, those that weren't dead again that is.

"Give me a moment would you?" asked Hermione. She turned to the inner doors and began to cast spells on them without waiting for a reply. Each door and window gave a brief glow then faded back to normal in appearance. "There, that avenue is cut off to them. I made the doors and glass impervious. They can't break them down now."

"Thanks... I guess," said Andrea, "but how do we get out of here? That way is blocked again and I'm not going to try walking through that crowd out there..."

"How many of you are there in here at the moment?" asked Harry.

"Six, counting T-Dog and Dixon on the roof." replied Glenn. Andrea gave a nod.

"Okay then, here's the plan, I put all the non-magical folks in my personal trunk, then the rest of us apparate back to the cars and get out of here." said Harry, "We can strip this place before we go."

"Your trunk has an extension charm on it Harry?" asked Hermione.

Harry nodded as he pulled the trunk from one of many hidden pockets in his cloak, "It's got a medium sized apartment in it, nothing too fancy."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Such a trunk would cost ten thousand galleons at least, unfurnished. Knowing how much Harry loved the tent on their Horcrux hunt, she imagined he'd bought something that was top-of-the-line and those ran into hundreds of thousands in galleons.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you want us to get into a trunk? We'll never fit, not too mention we'd be trapped in there if we did!" yelled Moralas.

"Easy big guy, it's magic, you'll all fit and have room for twenty more if I squeeze things in a little. You'll be just fine, and best of all, you won't even feel the effects of apparation in there, cause you'll already be compressed by the expansion magic. Trust me, you'll be just fine and once we're all in a safer place, I'll let you all out and we can talk about our next move once we're all in the open again. Sound fair?" Harry proposed. "Just to be clear here, this is the safest plan I can think of that gets all of us out of here in one piece and free of any pesky bites."

The four in front of Harry's small group huddled up to talk it over.

It took a few minutes and Rick was getting antsy. Glenn and Jacqui were for the trunk, but Moralas and Andrea weren't in a trusting mood and kept shooting dark looks at Harry's bunch. Finally Rick said, "Look, you two can debate this until doomsday, oh wait, that's already passed us by! We need to get out of here soon and Harry's our best bet to do that. You can bet on it. He saved my life and the lives of several other people since I've met him and he's done some really amazing things with his magic. I trust him with my life and honestly, you should too. If you want to try to get out of here on your own, fine, but don't let your fear of the unknown stop your friends from accepting our help because of it."

Rick sighed, "We all need to stick together now. This world has gone to Hell, it us and them now, the living and the dead. If we don't start working together and holding to that idea, we'll all be dead inside a year, even Harry here. So, what's it gonna be?"

Andrea and Moralas exchanged looks and then nodded to each other. Andrea answered, "So what, we just hide in your trunk and then what? You take us out of here? How?"

Hermione said, "Like this," and apparated across the room and back, "only we go back to our cars this way."

The mundanes in the room were speechless. Rick, was the only one unsurprised since he'd seen this skill used earlier in the week.

Just then, there was a bit of noise near the stairwell to the ground floor. Ron, T-Dog -who had a rather smug look on his face-, Neville and a tightly bound and gagged Merle Dixon made an appearance. Neville was levitating the bound figure with a look of disgust on his face.

"Hey Nev, bring us a present?" asked Harry with a smirk. "You really shouldn't have. I got nothing for you."

"Ha ha, Harry." said Neville as he unceremoniously dumped Dixon on the floor who gave a disgruntled grunt in response to his rough treatment, staring daggers at Neville and Ron.

Hermione sighed, looking at the somewhat alarmed looks from Andrea. Oddly enough, the other strangers were looking at the bound man with a various mix of grins and smirks of their own. "So, who's this and what happened?"

"This," T-Dog gave Merle a dirty look, "is Merle Dixon, our resident redneck and prejudiced little prick." T-Dog had some signs of a fight his face, which Hermione was now looking at with concern. "He picked this moment to try and beat the black out of me, but your friends, Ron and Nev here stopped him."

Rick just shook his head in disbelief and pointed to the crowd of walkers outside futilely trying to break down the now unbreakable doors to get in and make a nice warm-blooded meal out of all of them. "Do you see what's out there?" he asked the bound up Merle, "This world is going to hell, and you're letting your prejudiced views get in the way of surviving! It's not a matter of race or creed, or religion anymore; it's a matter of us," he pointed at Merle, himself, and the others in the room, "and them!" He pointed towards the walkers. "We can't afford to have anymore petty views about what color that one's skin is or how much more money that prick in the Volvo has than you do... It's just us, and them now, the living and the dead. The only way we're going to survive this is to do it together, all of us, not just you and the Great White Race. Neville, unbind the man please."

Neville glanced at Harry first, but complied, ending the binding and gag charms on Merle. He did keep his wand trained on the redneck however.

Merle immediately exploded back up onto his feet began to laugh uproariously, "You've got balls, I'll give y'all that much at least, but try that again and I'll gut you like you wouldn't believe." he taunted. He reached into his pocket and brought out a small baggie of dope and was about to take a generous sniff of the stuff to buck up his courage...

Harry cast, "Petrificus Totalus... Merle, Merle, Merle... What are we going to do with you? As things stand, you're a liability to your group, and if we let you join us, we'll always have to be watching our backs when you're around... Frankly, if we didn't need every warm body we can get, I'd leave you here to take your chances alone, but we don't have that luxury, and I don't have anymore time to stand around and argue with you about things and how they are now as Rick so eloquently put it a moment ago... So," Harry made a quick gesture and transfigured Merle into a block of hot pink wood, "you'll just have to keep until we all have time to sort this out." Harry said as he stuffed the small block into his pants pocket.

Andrea gulped, "Is he dead?"

"No, only put into a form of stasis." Hermione said as she walked over and picked up the block. "Really Harry, did you have to make it hot pink?"

Harry smirked, "I guess the Marauder in me got loose for a moment. If I had to listen to that guy another minute, I was going to lose it."

Glenn and Moralas exchanged looks while Jacqui and Andrea stood around looking slightly confused. It was Jacqui that spoke next, "There may be a way out of here via the sewers."

Andrea said, "How do you know that?"

"I used to work in the city planning office. A lot of the older buildings like this have access tunnels to the sewage and drainage systems, the power comes in at those areas too. We should head to the basement and have a look to see if they're clear. No offense, but my idea beats riding inside a magic trunk..."

Harry gave a resigned nod, "We'll check it out, but give me this; if the way's blocked, you'll try this my way. Okay?"

A few minutes later, it was obvious to everyone that while Jacqui's idea had been a good one on the surface, it was not going to happen. Besides the one walker that scared the crap out of Glenn, Harry could detect at least twenty more further down the blocked off tunnel and hundreds more beyond that. Apparently, Jacqui wasn't the only one to think using the sewers was a good idea to get around, but those who had hidden there had also fallen and now were the sewer's only denizens...

Harry pulled out his trunk and opened it to the apartment level. "Come right in, I'll give you the grand tour and you can all get comfortable." Five minutes later, Harry, Ron and Neville were on the roof and about to leave when Harry's mirror once again went off. "Hey Luna, mission accomplished. We have the group you found for us tucked away in my trunk and are about to leave."

Luna nodded, "Yes, we have two more groups for you to grab first, before you leave town. The first group is looks like a gang holding up at a nursing home. They're watching out for the elderly from what we can tell from the satellite's view. The second group is at a local hospital, downtown."

"Alright, give us their coordinates and we'll go get them." Harry sighed. Rick wasn't going to like the delay, but what could he do?

HPTWD

Inside the trunk, Andrea was getting to know Rick a little better as she listened to Glenn grilling the sheriff's deputy about Harry's bunch while Hermione was off in the library reading some dusty old tome with a huge smile on her face.

"I haven't seen Lori or Carl since before I got shot a few weeks ago," Rick was now saying, "I just hope they're still alive and that Shane or somebody is watching out for them."

"Wait a minute, you're married to a woman named Lori, and she has a son named Carl?" asked Andrea, cutting into the conversation.

Glenn looked startled, "There's a guy at our camp named Shane, he's kinda in charge of the whole operation, well sorta. He's a deputy sheriff too."

Rick shot up from the sofa he'd been sitting on and began to pace, "Shane is with your group? Do you know if he has a woman and a boy with him?"

Andrea nodded, "Yeah, I talked to Lori this morning. She wanted me to see if we could find anymore of this toothpaste that she likes. Her son Carl likes it too he said."

Rick's heart felt like it was beating a mile a second. Had he really found his family already? "Oh my God, it sounds like them, are they okay, do they look like they're in good health?"

Glenn gave a nod, "Yeah, they're good. I've been lucky so far getting food and other supplies on my other runs to the city, this was the first time I've brought along anyone else and you know how that turned out..."

Rick grinned, "I can't wait to see them. Tell me all you know about them, please. This is the first good news I've had on a personal level since I woke up in that damn hospital bed."

Andrea and Glenn shared a grin and began to share what they knew...

Meanwhile, Hermione pulled her extendable ear back in and continued to read the first edition of _Hogwarts: A History,_ asif it was even possible, her grin grew even bigger.

HPTWD

Three hours, and three now short tempers nearly set off later, Harry, Ron and Neville finally reached the cars. They'd spent two hours wit the Vatos getting them to trust them and go to the prison sanctuary. It finally took a stern look from a little old lady to get the gang leader to back down and actually listen to Harry.

The Hospital was almost are hairy because some of the cops that ran it were dirty, and tempers ran short there as a result. It nearly came to a full out assault before the police leader talked some sense into the others and defused the situation.

All told, a total of another seventy-six people were rescued and transferred to the prison via portkeys

It was grueling work, but it was also rewarding for Harry's Saving People Thing and that made him content. Now, he had to listen to Rick rant about the delay when he freed the group form his trunk.

Harry pulled out his trunk, unshrunk it and opened the apartment compartment. Rick was the first one out... and grabbing Harry up into a bear hug for all he was worth, "They're alive! They're alive Harry! They're all back at this quarry these guys were holding up at!"

Harry managed to get loose, then grinned at Rick's enthusiastic demeanor. "That's brilliant mate. Really, it is, but we aren't there yet, so let's hit the road shall we?"

Rick clapped Harry on the back and nodded, "Come on! We're burning daylight!"

Harry handed Glenn the keys to a large van that could seat everyone in his group and headed for his car. Hermione shook her head and laughed before following.

Ron and Neville looked at each other and smirked, "Brilliant," they said in unison.

A few moments later, three vehicles were quarry bound...

Overhead and unnoticed, a single helicopter noted the movement and then continued onward to the west.

HPTWD

 **AN:** Hey all, Sorry for the long delay on this post. I've had a lot of bad RL issues pop up, including the passing of one of my favorite uncles in October. Needless to say, my writing time has suffered, but I'm back at it again, so the next chapter hopefully won't take so long to post.

As you may have guessed, that chapter will see the reunion of Rick and his family and it will have a few surprises for our magical hero Harry as well! Until then.

Martin70


	6. Chapter Five

**AN:** Special notice for this chapter because of strong language used. You've now been warned! Now on with the story...

 **Chapter Five: Reunions**

Along the way back to the quarry, Harry stopped at several fueling stops that Glenn had eyed but left along because of the number of undead walking around them. These weren't gas stations, bit rather actual fuel depots that those stations bought their fuel from and had delivered. It wasn't long and Harry had thousands of more gallons of fuel stored in one of his bags for safe keeping.

"Why are we gathering all this fuel anyway?" asked Ron.

"Luna said we'd need it. Don't ask me how though. The plans for the prison and others that are long term are geared toward magic and solar powering what we need with some hydroelectric thrown in when we can get this all under some semblance of control." replied Harry.

"Hydroelectric?" asked Ron, "Hydro means water, so do muggles know how to create electricity from water? How?" Having been married to Hermione once, Ron had picked up a great deal of mundane lingo and didn't mess up strange words like his father did as much anymore.

"Yes, they use turbines in flowing water to generate electricity. I'm not sure about all of the details though." informed Harry.

"Huh." was all Ron could say to that.

HPTWD

It was just after six in the evening when Dale could see the small caravan of vehicles approaching, "We've got three vehicles incoming, looks like Glenn is in the lead." he called down to the crowd that could hear Glenn and Harry's approach, but not see them yet.

As Glenn pulled up, the crowd of people gathered around the van, hopeful for supplies. He stepped out to hear people asking what he and the scavenging team brought back.

Before Glenn could open his mouth, a voice shouted from the next car behind the van, "LORI! CARL!"

Lori, who was just stepping out of her tent, froze at the sound of that voice. It sounded like Rick, but that was impossible... Rick was dead, wasn't he? Shane saw him die, didn't he? He'd said so. Doubt blossomed in her heart, doubt of Shane's word, and a sliver of hope began to grow as she ran towards the voice. A tentative, "Rick?" escaping her as she ran.

As fast as Lori ran, another blew by her as nothing more than a vague blur, yelling as he went, "DAD!" Carl slammed into a figure that had been jogging forward and hugged the man for all he was worth. "I knew you were alive! I knew you'd find us!" Carl yelled excitedly as the figure looked up and saw Lori.

It was Rick... It really was Rick! Lori was suddenly enveloped in strong arms, arms she would know anywhere, her husband had come back to her. Against all odds... Then the doubt flared into realization, Shane had lied to her... The doubt became anger, the anger turned to hatred and the hatred directed its attention at another figure that had just emerged from the woods, Shane... Lori went rigid and Rick quickly let go of her, seeing all the signs of a rant incoming, "SHANE! YOU LIED TO ME!"

She rushed back towards Shane, a storm brewing behind her angry eyes. Shane held up his arms defensively as she unleashed on him, smacking at him for all she was worth. Shane was somewhat dismayed by the display, and then he saw Rick too and was literally dumbstruck, "Rick?"

Rick merely stood there watching as Lori ranted at his old partner, he'd only ever seen her do that rant twice, and that was at him and her father. The first time was at her Dad for not accepting her marriage to Rick, they'd married young, and the second was when Rick had argued with her over Carl taking a self defense class (which included firearms training). She really hated guns, and hated Rick's job. They'd been talking separation before he was shot...

"YOU EVEN SLEPT WITH ME KNOWING HE WAS OUT THERE SOMWHERE-" That was as far as she got before Rick was suddenly there, and punching Shane in the face. Shane dropped like a rock as Rick continued to lay into him, punching him about the head and face. Rick was going to kill him, but then another stranger was there and waving a stick around. Rick froze in mid motion, unable to move any longer.

"Rick, he's had enough. He's not even conscious anymore." The man, no, the wizard Lori realized, waved his wand over Shane and a strange mist rose up and displayed Shane's head and skull in 3d, "You've broken his nose, and shattered his lower jaw and left cheek bone. He has a concussion and his brain is beginning to swell."

He waved his wand at Rick again and Rick levitated off Shane and to the side, "I'm going to release your head so you can speak Rick, but your next few moments will determine if I fully release you or not, understood?"

"Harry, let me go, that sonofabitch tricked my wife into sleeping with him. I knew he was jealous of what I have with Lori, but this... Harry, he tried to completely supplant me and take my place! He's gonna suffer for that!" Rick said in a deceptively calm tone of voice.

"Maybe he does," Harry agreed, "but does he deserve to die? You almost killed him before I stopped you."

Rick pulled in his anger and took a deep breath before replying, "What would you do in my place Harry? He's scum! He was my partner before all of this and he betrayed me! Tell me Harry, what would you do in my place?"

Another voice spoke up behind them all, "Yes Harry, tell us, what would a freak like you do?"

Harry whipped around and saw Vernon Dursley standing there looking puffed up and self important, behind Vernon were Petunia and Dudley. Vernon and Dudley had lost a great deal of weight since he'd last seen them and Petunia looked more plump. Apparently, living on the States had done them a world of good. In fact, Dudley looked really fit, though a little rough around the edges due to the current crisis. Harry sighed, "Well, there goes the neighborhood..."

His last sentence brought laughter from the crowd of people who'd been watching dumbfounded by the events unfolding in front of them. The Dursley's weren't very popular in the camp, at least Vernon wasn't. Vernon scowled while Petunia and, surprisingly, Dudley had the good grace to look embarrassed by Harry's remark. Vernon exploded, "This is all your fault isn't it! You and your kind started all this undead freakishness! If I'd known this was in our future, I would have drowned you as a baby Boy!"

Harry sighed again, "To answer your question," Harry said, ignoring Vernon's rant and looking at Rick, "I'd get Shane's side of things before condemning the man... Rick, can you hold on for a moment please? It seems my... family has found me here too."

Rick gave a nod, his anger at Shane forgotten because of the older British stranger's dismaying statement. He was so stunned, he forgot he couldn't move anything below his neck.

Meanwhile, Hermione had moved up and begun to work on healing Shane, a look of sheer loathing on her face whenever she glanced at Vernon.

Harry continued, turning back to Vernon, "As to the questions you asked... yes, this was likely started by a mad wizard or witch. Did I have anything to do with it? No... at least, not that I know of. This all started with magic. Only magic can create these things. We call them Inferi, but these are different than the usual kind because these undead aren't being created like Inferi normally are. It's baffled our best wizards and witches, this disease that's creating the damned things. It's unlike anything we've ever seen before, but we will find a way to stop these things and end this crisis, or die trying."

Vernon wavered between a look of triumph at Harry's supposed admission in his eyes and a sickly green colored look at the realization that Harry didn't know how to stop the chaos that the Dursley's found themselves in.

Harry's face hardened, "As to that last remark, I'm not the slightest amused by what you say you would have done to me had you known what was coming. That said, I decided to forgive you all a long time ago for how you raised me. I don't understand it, and I doubt I ever will, but I forgive you anyway. I had to to maintain my sanity. Take that as you will, but there it is." Harry turned back to Rick, dismissing the Dursley's from his mind. "Let's sort this out later Rick, for now, I'll have Neville and Ron watch Shane while Hermione tends to him in my trunk apartment. I'll release you once they're in the trunk."

Vernon stomped off in a huff, once he saw Harry using that damned stick of his to move Shane into a trunk he'd pulled from his pocket and enlarged, dragging Petunia along. Dudley looked as though he wanted to stay and talk, but followed his Dad when Vernon gave him a dirty look.

True to his word, Rick was shortly once more in Lori's arms while holding Carl in his after Shane had been moved into the trunk.

Harry finally turned to the gathered crowd, "Hello, my name is Harry Potter. My companions are; Ron Weasley, the redhead, Neville Longbottom, the dark haired chap, and Hermione Granger, the lovely witch you saw a moment ago tending to Shane. As you've all probably guessed by now, we're all magicals. Men in our culture are called wizards and we can do magic. I was raised by the Dursley's over there, they hate magic, I don't know why really, but because of that they didn't treat me too well growing up. I won't go into details, it's water under the bridge and as I've said earlier, I forgave them long ago so it doesn't matter anymore. Please, if you like them, don't think badly of them because of how I was raised, but don't let their hatred cloud your own judgment either.

"We have a safe place for all of you to go, it's secure and there's little danger of becoming infected and dying and then rising again once you're there. I'll be honest though, it's a prison," this caused a few people to scoff, "but it's one that's never seen a single inmate. It's brand new and right here in Georgia. The Magical President of the United States has designated the prison as a safe haven in this state. It's being heavily fortified and magically expanded to accommodate as many people as necessary. Special warding magic is being used to protect the living there from the Inferi threat. There's food, shelter, and even some luxuries available. All the comforts of home will be made available to you.

"Now, I'm not telling you, you have to go. You can stay right here and take your chances on your own, but I implore all of you to go to the prison for safety.

"Finally, I have some supplies right here," He pulled open one of his bags and reached in further than was possible if it had been a mundane bag, and pulled out a large stack of blankets, "There's food in here too and other essentials." He pulled out a 48 roll package of toilet paper and set it on top of the blankets. Next came a large fully cooked turkey on a platter that was still steaming hot, as if just pulled straight from an oven.

The eyes of those in the crowd grew large at that. The crowd began calling out requests for particular items and Harry delivered them. Everything from toothpaste to nail clippers, from the turkey to jerky and ice cold fresh milk. Even Rocky Road ice cream came forth on a demand from Carl. This astounded them all. When asked how it was possible, Harry just grinned and said, "It's magic."

What he didn't tell them was that he'd asked the house elves of Hogwarts to raid every store in Scotland and the UK for anything a muggle might need or desire. Harry wouldn't be the slightest surprised if he couldn't locate some porn and its related items if he asked the bags for them. The house elves had just been so thorough, it was scary.

After Harry stopped getting anymore requests, he began to wander the camp a little, trying to get to know some of its residents. One man drew his attention quickly, and that was Dale.

Dale said, "Could you come and check a friend of ours? Jimmy had an apparent bout of heatstroke earlier today. We found him digging some holes up the hill from here."

Harry nodded, "Of course sir." and followed Dale into the RV.

Inside, Jimmy was looking better, though still a bit dehydrated. As soon as he saw Harry he smiled. "Hello, I've been expecting you Harry." 

Harry frowned, "You have? Why is that?"

"You're the Chosen One. You shall be the one that saves the world. The events that led to Riddle's death caused this catastrophe. One of his followers set it all into motion. You must find the son if you are to even hope to succeed in your endeavor." Jimmy replied.

A coldness entered Harry's stomach, "Who are you? How do you know about me, and why do you believe I'm the chosen one?"

Jimmy smiled sadly, "I'm just the messenger. I don't know how I know what I do, I just do." He sighed and seemed to fall asleep.

Dale watched all of this and said, "He's been acting funny like that all day since we brought him in here and got him cooled down. Who's this son he's talking about? Does this son know how to stop what's happening?"

Harry only took a second to think of one name and uttered it like a curse, "Malfoy..."

HPTWD

As the sun began to set, Harry came out of the RV and began walking towards his car to gather up a few more things. As he did, Dudley and a nice looking blonde girl fell in beside him as he walked. "Hey Harry, this is Amy, my girlfriend." Dudley proclaimed in a half proud half shy voice.

Harry glanced at the girl and gave her a small smile, "Hello Amy, nice to meet you." He continued walking towards his car.

"Look, um Harry? Could we have a few minutes of your time? Please?" asked Dudley.

Harry stopped so suddenly, Dudley and Amy took two full strides before stopping themselves. The shock on his face confused them for a moment until he spoke, "That's the first time I can remember you saying please while addressing me..." He took a long drawn out breath, "Okay Big-D, I can spare a few minutes, what is it that you wanted?"

Dudley seemed to take a second to think about what he wanted to say then, "I'm sorry." he finally said.

Harry was astonished. Dudley Dursley, the bully of his childhood, the boy who'd invented the game 'Harry Hunting', the one who'd beaten him many times over the years and laughed as he did it was apologizing to him? His eyes went cold, "I don't believe you..."

Dudley sighed, "I mean it Harry. I'm sorry for how I treated you when we were kids. I was a spoiled prat and I did as I was told more often than I should have. It sickens when I look back on my behavior. I didn't understand that my actions had consequences, not just for me but for you as well. I was deluded into thinking that since you were a 'freak' then it was alright to just do whatever Dad said to do to you and not question it. I never really learned that it was wrong to do what I did because Dad said it was okay... and I was dumb enough to believe him! I've learned since then Harry, I understand now that what I did to you was wrong and looking back now, I wish I could knock some sense into myself from back then. I wish I could show him what I did to you from your perspective. I'm sure he would have changed his ways. I know I have." Dudley sighed again, "I really am sorry Harry. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I don't deserve it, I just wanted you to know how I feel... and maybe, just maybe we could start over? I know it's too much to ask like this, but please think about it." With that, Dudley walked away.

Amy stood a moment longer though to say, "He really is sorry, I met him a few months ago and we've been nearly inseparable ever since. He's not the same guy who did all those awful things to you anymore. He's one of the kindest people I've ever met. So's his Mom. His Dad's still a real piece of work though. Anyway, he needed to get this off his chest, and until you walked into camp, he thought he'd never get the chance, so thank you for listening." Amy ran to catch up to Dudley, not once looking back.

Harry slowly began walking back to his car again thinking about Dudley's speech and Amy's following words. He'd told the Dursley's just a little while ago that he'd forgiven them for their treatment of him, but had he? Had he really forgiven them? His reaction to Dudley's apology said no, that he was still very angry with them. He decided he needed to take some time to meditate on it before he called it a night. Besides, he'd just more or less figured out that the current mess the world was in had likely been done by the Malfoy's. He needed to think on that as well. Then there was the whole Rick/Shane/Lori situation to add more drama to his thoughts. He halfheartedly wished for the days when all he'd had to worry about was old Moldyshorts... Those were the days...

As he was walking, he put his hand into his pants pocket for the keys and felt an odd lump. He pulled out a block of hot pink wood... "Oops... almost forgot about you Merle." He grinned for a moment then stuffed the block back into his pocket again and fished out the car keys, "You can keep a while longer too..."

HPTWD

Two hours later, Harry was sitting in front of a wizard's tent in deep meditation. He'd calmed down from Dudley's speech and decided to give his cousin a chance, his aunt too. This was more because of Amy's words rather than what Duds had said and he was tired of holding the grudge.

He'd also thought a bit about Merle and what to do about him and those like him in the future. He decided to take them on, on a case by case basis. This way he didn't have to give it too much thought or effort. With Merle, he was thinking honestly about some behavioral adjustment therapy with the generous use of Legimancy and, if necessary, judicious obliviation... They were going to need every live person they could get their hands on, but only those he thought were worth saving or might be needed for some unique knowledge they might possess, even if the person with that knowledge was a monster. Monsters could be obliviated of their evil tendencies and reformed to serve the new world that would follow this mess. It was a dark possibility to do this and he'd have to fight some people to get it done, but it might mean the difference between living or dying, so he'd do what he had to.

This was not to say he'd try to reform every whack job and monster they came across, that was unrealistic, but he might be able to save a great deal more people than he might otherwise have done. He wouldn't bow down, as some had already found out in the DC area, and he wouldn't let anyone push him around either. If someone was a clear and present danger, he'd act accordingly and eliminate the threat, then sort out the mess afterward.

The love triangle that had formed with Rick, Lori and Shane was another mess to figure out as well. Shane was not a nice person it would seem. He'd abandoned Rick at the hospital and then proceeded to shack up with Rick's wife and kid, trying to take Rick's place. That sort of betrayal was something Harry was unfamiliar with. Sure he'd learned the ins and outs of having a relationship with several women in the ten years since the battle at Hogwarts, but he'd never seen anything like this happen in real life, on a bad Spanish soap opera, sure... He was inclined to let Rick and Lori sort it out with Shane and only intervene if asked or things got out of control again. Yes, that's what he'd do.

He was just about to start contemplating the Malfoy's when a lean looking man in a biker's style outfit pulled up on a motorcycle and stared at him for a while. Harry stared back steadily, figuring this was Merle's brother, Daryl.

Daryl killed the engine and kicked the stand out, then leaned back and stared at Harry again for a moment before speaking, "I hear you know where my brother is... I also heard you're one of those wizards they talked about on TV right before the stations all went dead."

Daryl's southern accent was strong in Harry's ears, but Harry understood him perfectly. "Yes I do, and yes I am." he replied firmly. "Your brother is very close by in fact."

Daryl nodded, "I heard you magicked him into a block of wood." Daryl smirked, "I'll bet he's loving that."

"Oh, he's unaware of anything at the moment. When I change him back, he will likely be shocked that we're at the camp already." Harry said.

"Why haven't you done it already?" Daryl asked, "What business is it of yours what my brother does or says?"

"I've been tasked by the Ministry of Magic in the UK and the magical president of the United States to restore order. Your brother is a threat to that." Harry stated.

Daryl's face darkened, "Ain't no law out here no more Limey. It's survival of the fittest."

"Is that you talking just now or your brother's words being mouthed off?" asked Harry, genuinely curious now.

"We've done well without Big Brother watching our asses all the time before the dead started walking around. We don't need the likes of you now." Daryl affirmed.

"I notice that you didn't answer my question, but I'll bite. You see Daryl, it might be just that, survival of the fittest, but the thing of it is, it doesn't have to be. This world has gone to the Jakes*, but it won't be this way forever, not if we make a stand and try to turn the tide. I know I sound like a politician. I get that, and I get that you love your brother, as stupid as the man can be. So I have a choice for you to make on his behalf." Harry offered.

"What choice?" asked Daryl.

"Well, I can return your brother as is, or... I can fix some of his problems. I know he's a drug addict. I know he likely bullied you all your life because your father wasn't a nice person-" Harry was cut off.

"Stop right there! Where do you get off talking about my Dad like you knew him! You don't know a damned thing about him!" Daryl yelled, getting in Harry's face.

"It's an educated guess Mr. Dixon. One I make from personal experience, just go talk to my Uncle Vernon about me. He'll have you all nostalgic for your Dad in no time I imagine." said Harry calmly.

Daryl blanched, "That fat bastard is your uncle?" Harry nodded. "Damn, and I thought my Dad was a piece of work. That Limey prick beats him hands down, and not even tryin'..." Daryl backed up and glared at Harry again, "So, what can you do for my brother? Who says he needs fixing anyway?"

"I can cure his addiction easily enough and place a compulsion charm on him to keep him clean the rest of his days. I can go into his mind and root out the cause or causes for his behavior and the real reasons he wants to get high all the time. I know he was using before the fall. I can then help him to deal with these problems. If I do it right, he'll almost be a new man. I can limit how much his personality changes though too, so he can still be the same fool he's always acted sometimes as well." Harry informed Daryl.

"Yeah, well, he's an asshole, but he's my asshole. So let me think about this for a bit." Daryl muttered. "Can I see him now?"

"Sure." Harry pulled out the hot pink wooden block and showed it to Daryl.

Daryl lost it... "That's... that's-" much laughter, "that's Merle?" he stuttered out. At Harry firm nod and smile, Daryl fell to the ground, rolling around and laughing his ass off. "He's- He's never... never going to live this down!" Daryl burst out laughing again, "Hot- hehe, hot pink!"

Harry grinned and simply waited for Daryl to laugh it out.

Ten minutes later, Harry was wondering how Daryl was able to get in a breath of air, he was still laughing so hard. If he didn't know better, he'd think someone had cast a cheering charm on the man.

Finally, after another five minutes, Daryl got himself under a semblance of control, wiping laughing tears from his eyes. He said, "Okay, change him back. I gotta tell him about this!"

Harry just shrugged and pulled his wand to change Merle back. With a wave, Merle was standing there looking around in confusion.

Daryl, cut up laughing again and uttered out, "You looked better as a block of wood bro."

"Why you little traitor, I'm gonna-" that was as far as Merle got before he felt the pointy end of a stick on the back of his neck.

"You're going to calm down Merle. Then we're going to have a long talk, the three of us. Sound good to you Daryl?" Harry ordered and said.

Daryl nodded, "We've needed to do this for a long time Merle. I'd listen to what this man has to say. Or, you could end up a lock of wood again. Who knows, you might get thrown in the fire if we weren't careful, no more Merle..."

The three men sat on conjured chairs and began to talk...

Merle came away from that talk a changed man. He still had his problems sure, but he was a far more tempered man than he had been. Unfortunately, short of a full mind wipe, he'd always be an asshole...

HPTWD

Carol sighed as her husband Ed finally fell asleep. He'd been quiet since the wizards had arrived and he'd seen their almost casual use of magic, but she could see the signs of an eminent eruption brewing in his eyes too as he watched them. Unsurprisingly, he and Vernon were almost like long lost friends cavorting with each other amiably in the chaos that was their lives now.

It wasn't unusual for Vernon and Ed to be seen together complaining about Shane and his almost totalitarian rule of the camp. They also terrorized the other women in the camp when the other males weren't around, bullying them without mercy to get their way... and now that was about to end and they didn't like it one bit! They knew that Potter and that other man, Grimes, would put a quick and decisive end to their nefarious activities. Sadly, they lacked the skills needed to come up with a plan that would have them coming out on top so they'd drunk themselves to nearly unconsciousness mutual misery and then gone looking for their wives and to bed.

Carol was a sad individual most of the time before the fall, and now that the fall had happened things were steadily getting worse. She worried every day about Sophia's safety and was almost fatalistic when it came to someone she equally loved that she'd been forced to give up, Sophia's twin sister, Megan. Megan was likely dead or, heaven forbid, dead and walking around... She could remember the day Ed had forced her to give up one of the twins, saying it was too expensive raising one child these days, let alone two, and both in diapers at the same time to boot.

"Either we give up one of the brats or we get rid of both of 'em." Ed had stated. Carol had luckily found a distant cousin who was barren and agreed to take Megan, and at first they'd stayed in contact, but Ed saw the phone bill a few months later and had a conniption fit over it and forbid anymore calls. He was still living in the dark ages and refused to buy a cell phone, instead using the old expensive land lines, so calling long distance really racked up the bill. Then one day, Carol got a letter from her cousin's husband saying her cousin had died, and he'd put a two year-old Megan up for adoption. Carol had signed away her parental rights along with Ed and could only cry as she held onto Sophia for dear life. For several weeks, Sophia hardly left her side, and she hardly slept because of the guilt she felt from losing Megan. She sent a picture of herself and Sophia to the husband and asked for him to have it placed in Megan's adoption file so when she came of age, she would know she had a sister.

As the years passed since then, Ed had become more and more surly and was prone to acts of sudden and unprovoked violence. Carol had left him twice, but then returned after promises from Ed that things would get better. She was about to leave him for the final time when the world came crashing down around their ears. At that point, Carol had decided to stick with the man, if only for protection from the bad elements in this new world, as such things usually brought out the bad in people. Only, now she was beginning to once again doubt her sanity, and herself, as these magic users appeared in the midst and began to help everyone.

She gave a sigh, checked on Sophia, and then went to bed. She'd decide what to do in the morning...

HPTWD

That night the camp fell into a peacefulness unknown to the inhabitants for many weeks. It was the calm before the storm that was brewing for the next day...

AN: Hi all, sorry it's been so long since my last update. I'll try to do better in the future, and no this story isn't dead, it's barely getting started. I've decided to split this chapter because I wanted to cover too much in it to make it very palatable to you readers. The next chapter is coming! I've put in a new plot twist on this chapter and have a few others in the works that should keep you coming back for more. Yes, Sophia has a twin, and we'll look in on her later... /grins evilly. I hope to have another chapter ready soon, the waste matter is about to hit the proverbial fan and Harry will be hard pressed for the first time in the story.

AN2: ~WARNING~ The next chapter will contain several character deaths... You've now been warned...


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